Dominique Cornin Bourgogne-Blanc 2020
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
The individual vineyards of this Estate represent the legacy of the Cornins’ family history in the Mâconnais. Founded in 1993 by Dominique Cornin, his son, Romain now leads the estate. One of the youngest of a new generation of wine producers, Romain’s knowledge is widely admired by his peers, having studied under his father, the Macon producer, Verget, and in the United States and New Zealand.
The domaine comprises 12,5 hectares over the villages of Chaintré, Fuissé, and Chanes. The individual vineyards of this Domaine are an apt reflection of the Cornin family. Les Chevrières is a one and a half hectares plot produced for the Hospices de Beaune and elevated to 1er Cru status in 2020. Clos Reyssié bears fruit from the same vines his great-great-grandfather set out in 1938. The centenarian parcel in Les Serreudières reaches even deeper into the Cornin’s roots in Mâcon.
Certified organic in 2003, the Cornins use biodynamic farming methods, and their singular objective is to give each of their vineyards the best chance to express its terroir. The harvest is by hand, with fermentation in stainless steel tanks and the single-vineyard wines aged in used oak barrels and demi-muids. Intervention is kept to a minimum here, the grapes are guided from vine to bottle with gravity flow, and the wines are neither fined nor filtered. The Cornin wines show purity and elegance while expressing their origins, which are the guiding principles of this estate.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
These are the fun, fruit-driven and lively Chardonnays of white Burgundy, often offering some fantastic values and options that you don’t have to cellar. Flavors range from fresh green apple and lemon to melon or pineapple; some of the best are fleshy and mineral driven or balanced by a light touch of oak.
Mâconnais Chardonnay may have the weight of their more serious Côte de Beaune sisters, but not quite the refinement. Still, this appellation is one of the best ways to jump from California Chardonnay to something new and begin to understand white Burgundy.
The Mâconnais region is warmer and drier than the rest of Burgundy to its north (Côte d’Or) and has a landscape of rolling hills and farmland interspersed among vineyards. The region produces a lot of Chardonnay—Viré-Clessé and Pouilly-Fuisse are among the best—and a very small amount of red wine from Gamay and Pinot Noir. The soils of Mâconnais remain limestone dominant like in the Côte d’Or, making it a wonderful spot for Chardonnay to thrive. Gamay's home of Beaujolais lies just to the south.