Winemaker Notes
Intense and velvety with a colourful complexion, get darkening towards magenta; its nose reminds ripe black fruits (blackcurrant, cherry), evolving to animal notes after few years. Its structure, its concentration and its fruit reveal a character which is decided to convince
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This domaine, based in Chorey-les-Beaune, has a small parcel of vines on the dramatic Corton hill. The grapes produced a wine that is full bodied, rich, firm with tannins and generous with fruitiness. Tannins from wood aging and the fruit both promise an excellent future. This wine will be ready from 2024. Cellar Selection
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Wine Spectator
This is pure and elegant, sporting cherry and raspberry flavors, with a touch of blood orange. Firm tannins and vivid acidity lend support. Fine length. Deceptively open, yet built for the long haul. Best from 2022 through 2042.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Prevailing over the charming village of Aloxe, the hill of Corton actually commands the entire appellation. Corton is the only Grand Cru for Pinot Noir in the entire Côte de Beaune. Its Grand Crus red wines can be described simply as “Corton” or Corton hyphenated with other names. These vineyards cover the southeast face of the hill of Corton where soils are rich in red chalk, clay and marl.
Dense and austere when young, the best Corton Pinot Noir will peak in complexity and flavor after about a decade, offering some of the best rewards in cellaring among Côte de Beaune reds. Pommard and Volnay offer similar potential.
The great whites of the village are made within Corton-Charlemagne, a cooler, narrow band of vineyards at the top of the hill that descends west towards the village of Pernand-Vergelesses. Here the thin and white stony soils produce Chardonnay of exceptional character, power and finesse. A minimum of five years in bottle is suggested but some can be amazing long after. Fully half of Aloxe-Corton is considered Grand Cru.