Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Concentrated, this is laced with black cherry, violet and spice aromas and flavors. Shows a firm structure and remains well-balanced, lingering on the aftertaste, with spice and mineral elements. Best from 2017 through 2030.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2011 horizontal tasting in Beaune. There is a charred note on the nose of the Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru ‘11 that rather distracts from the broody black and red berry fruit, perhaps indicative of some barrels being excessively toasted. The palate is medium-bodied and supple on the entry, the fruit profile veering to the red side of the spectrum: cranberry, pomegranate and raspberry all interlaced with soy. There is a pleasant edginess on the finish. I would afford this grand cru another two or three years in bottle as there is potentially a good Corton here, providing that the charred tincture ebbs away.
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.”
A classic source of exceptional Chardonnay as well as Pinot Noir, the Côte de Beaune makes up the southern half of the Côte d’Or. Its principal wine-producing villages are Pernand-Vergelesses, Aloxe-Corton, Beaune, Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet.
The area is named for its own important town of Beaune, which is essentially the center of the Burgundy wine business and where many negociants center their work. Hospices de Beaune, the annual wine auction, is based here as well.