Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This Corton has breathtaking vibrancy and tension, and it is only just beginning to reveal its treasure chest of stony minerality. However, in spite of having terrific structure everything already fits beautifully together on the super-focused palate. Very long, crystalline finish. Drinkable now, but best from 2025.
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Vinous
The 2021 Corton Les Grandes Lolières Grand Cru is more reserved compared to its peers. It mainly features red fruit with rose petals and crushed stone, quite pure, and with time it reveals satisfying delineation. There is evidence of more new oak compared to others, and that still needs to be subsumed. The palate is well balanced with a bright citrus-fresh entry. Red cherry and raspberry fruit dovetail into a graphite-tinged second half where I notice some attenuation, perhaps a little drier than its peers.
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.