Winemaker Notes
A great Corton should resemble the hill itself in its size and impressiveness. Tollot-Beaut’s Corton Grand Cru is intense, concentrated, structured, and long. Aromas and flavors of black cherry liqueur, minerals, and herbs are complemented by vanilla and spice from aging in 50% new Burgundian pièce.
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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Jasper Morris
Bright mid purple, lighter rim. Quite a wealth of balanced deep red berry fruit here. A few bilberries in the mix. Enough structure to match the ripeness of the fruit, and excellent length. Plenty of stuffing, but not austere, suggests Nathalie. Barrel Sample: 91-93.
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Vinous
The 2023 Corton Grand Cru was picked on September 8 and 9, the middle of the picking. This has a fine bouquet of redcurrant, wild strawberry and light spicy notes. It is oaky for now but that will be subsumed. The palate is medium-bodied with fleshy tannins and fine acidity, as a blend of black cherries and blueberries leads to a lightly spiced, harmonious finish. Enjoy this over the next decade.
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.