Winemaker Notes
Intense fruit and toasted aromas blended with the mineral notes typical of this appellation on the nose. A rich, powerful wine with a strong personality. Very good ageing potential. Fish and shellfish in sauce, foie gras.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Bouchard have some of the biggest holdings of Corton-Charlemagne, at 3.9ha, all of them east-facing and high on the slope. This is perfumed and intense, with citrus rind and tangerine notes, chalky freshness and old-vine concentration. The oak is assertive but well integrated.
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James Suckling
Super chalky with restrained notes of stones and minerals, as well as orange and clementine aromas and lightly spiced bread dough, in attractive mode. The palate has a smoothly layered and very approachable feel with a lot of plush, rich and ripe fruit, delivered in a channel of chalky freshness. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Concentrated, with a solid structure keeping this sleek and long. Lemon, apple, vanilla and pastry spice notes ply the dense texture, buoyed by vivid acidity. Balanced, with a long aftertaste echoing the fruit and spice flavors, retaining a chalky feel. Best from 2021 through 2029
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru surpasses its showing from barrel, revealing an attractive bouquet of ripe orchard fruit, citrus oil, spring flowers and pastry cream. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, elegantly glossy and precise, with a fleshy core of fruit that's tempered by brisk acids, concluding with a delicately chalky finish. While this is a little shut down after its recent bottling, this is a charming, expressive Corton-Charlemagne in the making.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Corton-Charlemagne is one of the top Chardonnay grand crus in the world, and Bouchard & Père has always produced one of the best examples of this wine. The 2017 vintage is a beautiful and majestic wine. TASTING NOTES: This wine is extravagant and rewarding. Its generous aromas and flavors of ripe core fruit, creamy oak, and a hint of chalkiness should pair well with steamed lobster on a bed of al dente buttered egg noodles. (Tasted: March 14, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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.