Winemaker Notes
Pairs well with venison, game birds, and full-flavored cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
In 2018 the picking began on 5th September and yielded a rich, ripe red and black berry fruit character, yet there was no sense of excess, and the wine retained a pleasant freshness despite the heat. The tannins are firm, the texture rewardingly dense, and the finish is long. Produced from the large parcel purchased from the Moyne Jacqueminot family with an east-southeast exposure, just below the portion dedicated to Chardonnay.
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James Suckling
A firm, linear red with ripe strawberries and raspberries and some hazelnuts and citrus rind. It’s medium-to full-bodied with lightly chewy tannins and a flavorful finish. Tight at the end. Drink after 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Le Corton Grand Cru has turned out very nicely in bottle, offering up a deep and complex bouquet of cassis, wild berries, grilled meats, black truffle, blood orange and sweet forest floor. Medium to full-bodied, deep and muscular, it's layered and concentrated, with powdery tannins, lively acids and a long, sapid finish. While this is a powerful, structured wine, it's also very refined, and this is one 2018 that will offer a broad drinking window.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Bouchard Père & Fils Le Corton is an outstanding wine. TASTING NOTES: This beautiful wine exhibits excellent density. Pair its generous black fruit aromas and flavors with garlic and rosemary-infused roast leg of lamb. (Tasted: March 3, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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.