Winemaker Notes
Bonneau du Martray's vineyard run from top to bottom of the hill, where the thickness of the clays, silts, marls and different types of limestone make up a mosaic of soil with very different requirements and results: the parcels at the foot of the forest on the top of the hill give the wine a crystalline appearance, with floral and citrus fruit notes. The vines in the part in the heart of the hill structure the wine and bring grain to it, while the parcels at the bottom of the hill, richer in minerals, bring the power of Charlemagne.
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
The 2019 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne was picked between 12th and 18th September. For Winemaker Emmanuel Hautus, it comes across as a blend between 2015 and 2017. It will be bottled in May. Quite a pronounced primrose colour. The former vintage shows in a slight oiliness on the nose and sweeter, richer yellow fruit on top whereas the 2017 comparison can be seen in the crystalline underlay. There is a light salinity to finish, with white flowers and the lightest dusting of coconut.
Barrel Sample: 94-97 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The approximate blend of the 2019 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru is very promising, offering up notes of orange oil, white flowers, nutmeg and pear, followed by a full-bodied, layered and concentrated palate that's lively and elegantly textural, concluding with a long, penetrating finish. This is a very promising effort from the Domaine Bonneau du Martray team, and I look forward to revisiting the wine in bottle.
Barrel Sample: 95-97 -
Vinous
The 2019 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru is stellar. I remember this vintage quite well, as I visited the domaine during one of the two brutal heat spikes that punctuated the summer. What a pleasant surprise it is to find the 2019 in this tasting. A superb Burgundy, the 2019 offers a brilliant counterpoint of textural richness and minerality. It’s a heady, oily wine, but not overdone. Tropical fruit, exotic white flowers, slate and a kiss of French oak build as the 2019 shows off its racy personality.
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Decanter
Complete and powerful, this is a big wine but never awkward. There are delicious, delineated aromas of ripe apple and fresh white flowers on the attack, with a strong mineral underpinning. Rich, but not overly heavy, there is a surprising elegance and tension to this wine. The western exposure of the site and the light crushing the grapes receive, help to retain a balancing freshness here. The wine continues to evolve on the palate, leading to an impressively persistent finish.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
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.