Winemaker Notes
De Montille's Corton-Charlemagne immediately distinguishes itself as a regal wine. The attack is frank, direct and almost masculine, while the palate is powerful, profound, rich and very structured. This wine demands patience and will begin to shine after five to eight years.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Domaine de Montille Corton-Charlemagne is bold, concentrated, and focused. TASTING NOTES: This wine is packed and elevated on the palate. Enjoy its aromas and flavors of ripe fruit, oak, and creamy notes with roasted lobster and fresh noodles in a cream sauce. (Tasted: October 28, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru is performing well from bottle, revealing scents of green orchard fruit, white flowers, fresh pastry and toasted almonds. Medium to full-bodied, textural and succulent, it's lively and precise, concluding with a delicately chalky 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.