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.
Red Burgundy might be the world’s most flexible food wine. The wine’s high acidity, medium body, medium alcohol, and low tannins make it very food-friendly. Red Burgundy, with its earthy and sometimes gamey character, is a classic partner to roasted game birds, grilled duck breast, and dishes that feature mushrooms, black truffles, or are rich in umami.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2023 Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru has a well-defined bouquet, with neatly integrated 50% new oak and just a touch of reduction at the moment. The palate is smooth on the entry with touches of black pepper. The 2023 is a "fluid" Corton-Bressandes, harmonious with a commendably precise, fresh, licorice-tinged finish. Hunt this down—a superb Corton-Bressandes.
93-95 -
Wine Spectator
Graceful and silky, this red reveals raspberry, cherry, kirsch, rose and mineral aromas and flavors. The firm structure emerges as this evolves on the palate to the long, complex aftertaste. Offers terrific intensity and finesse, with its pedigree and potential showing on the finish.
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Jasper Morris
A rich imperial purple with a classy nose, plump red fruit but fine as well. Swells across the palate, growing in comparison to the straight Corton from Les Combes, the fruit absolutely covering the framework which definitely exist. Just a touch of ripe fruit to finish. Very good. Drink from 2030-2040. Tasted Oct 2024.
Barrel Sample: 92-94
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.