Winemaker Notes
Bressandes is highly expressive, firm, and powerful thanks to the high limestone content of its soil. Often cited as one of the very best climats on the Corton hill, it shows aromas and flavors of red and blackberry liqueur, earthiness, flowers, and herbs with powerful tannins. Corton-Bressandes will reward long aging in a cool cellar.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
Ripe strawberry, cherry, sandalwood, rose and mineral aromas and flavors abound in this taut, racy red. Intense, succulent and harmonious, leaving a firm and mouthwatering finish. Terrific length. Best from 2023 through 2045.
-
Jasper Morris
Clear fresh bright purple, plenty of energy here. Vigorous and fresh with a little new oak. This is very pretty on the palate with good acidity, an attractive veneer of vanilla style new oak, fair density and some persistence.
-
Wine & Spirits
Earthy and dark in tone, this wine has meaty beef broth flavors to its plummy fruit. The wine is powerful, but closed off for now. Cellar this for five years or more to allow the wine’s complexity to develop.
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.