Winemaker Notes
This 100% Pinot Noir pairs well with venison, game birds, and full-flavored cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
More crimson than purple, with a lifted nose with strawberry smoky notes from 50% whole bunch. Very pretty indeed. Let’s see if there is enough depth on the palate for grand cru. Yes, there is a delicious weight of cherry and strawberry fruit in the middle with an infusion of white pepper, but nothing dry on the finish. 4 stars if you like whole clusters, three if not.
Barrel Sample: 90-94 -
Wine Spectator
A core of cherry and berry fruit is framed by chocolate and oak spice flavors in this broad, fleshy red, which builds nicely across the palate before ending in a cascade of fruit, mineral and spice notes on the extended aftertaste. Best from 2027 through 2045. 75 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Cropped at a mere 10 hectoliters per hectare, Bouchard's 2021 Le Corton Grand Cru wafts from the glass with aromas of raspberries, rose petals, sweet spices and orange zest. Medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with powdery tannins and lively acids, it concludes with a long, saline finish.
Barrel Sample: 91-93 -
Vinous
The 2021 Le Corton Grand Cru is a little fuller and fleshier on the nose with ripe strawberry and red cherry scents, quite generous in style. Some stem addition becomes apparent with aeration, a little damp loam and bell pepper underlying the fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with powdery tannins. Fresh and linear, though it just lacks a bit of finesse and charm towards the robust and decidedly peppery finish.
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.