Exasperated by wines without flavour and having nothing to do with the wines that Burgundy should offer, Frédéric Cossard launched into the battle in 1996. Since then, he has been offering natural wines of fascinating purity on great appellations. Portrait.
Passionate about vines and wine since childhood, Frédéric Cossard took his first steps with a grandfather who was a wine grower in the commune of Nolay, in the Côte-d'Or. Years later, having become a broker in great Burgundy (from Chablis to Beaujolais),he took advantage of his position to taste a multitude of wines. He discusses with the winegrowers the technique, the work in the vineyard, the vinification and the maturing. And quite naturally, he aspires to become one of them. Not convinced of the overall offer in Burgundy, of the wines that they find for the majority without souls and too much make-up, he set himself the task of taking over a few vines and working as naturally as possible. Good (and good) took some from him. An opportunity to reclaim some plots in 1995, and he jumped at the chance. So we also have to find a banker who is sufficiently "committed" to dare to lend money to a boy who is not "son of winemaker. It will be the case, clever Fred!Birth of the Winery
Chassorney's Winery was launched on January 15, 1996. And to begin with, Frédéric worked on the AOC Saint-Romain red (1.1570 ha), Saint-Romain white (0.6340 ha), Auxey-Duresses red and white (0.40 ha), Bourgogne Hautes Côtes-de-Nuits (0.32 ha, abandoned 3 years later) and Nuits Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos des Argillières (0.69 ha). The work is obviously organic, it is even certified by the Qualité-France organization but the winemaker refuses to put it on the label as long as the specifications are limited to the cultivation of the grapes without concerning the winemaking.
In 2006, Winery takes a new turn. An old dream was finally possible: to vinify great whites in trade while controlling the supply of grapes (strict specifications with partner winegrowers). Wines from Savigny-lès-Beaune and another Nuits Saint-Georges entered the catalogue of the maison.
In 2010, the winemaker from whom Frédéric has been buying the grapes of Pommard and Volnay for 5 years, decided to stop its activity. A godsend for Môssieur Cossard, who takes the terroirs under his wing! Chassornay then doubles its surface area, from 5 to 10 hectares, by recovering plots of Volnay, Pommard, Volnay 1er Cru Carelle-la-Chapelle, Volnay 1er Cru Roncerets, Volnay 1er Cru Lurets, Pommard 1er Cru Pezzerolles, Bourgogne Hautes Côtes-de-Beaune white and red and Bourgogne red.
There, you know everything. You just have to taste it now ! Yippee.
