Winemaker Notes
The 2020 Chateau Corton Grancey Grand Cru reveals a deep ruby color with a hint of garnet. It is complex on the nose with aromas of black cherry, blueberry, and mocha. Round in the mouth, it is lightly peppery on the final. This wine stands out for its complexity and the softness of its tannins.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Complex meaty and spicy nose. This effortlessly marries the wild and refined sides of this Grand Cru! The fruit character stands on a mighty tower of tannins that are at once fine and slightly herbal. What an amazingly energetic finish!
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Wine Spectator
Delivers a velvety texture that wraps around flavors of black cherry, blackberry, plum, earth and spice. This is holding back a little now, with excellent balance and a finish that should develop even more length with time. Shows a solid core of fruit. Best from 2025 through 2045.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2020 Domaine Louis Latour Chateau Corton Grancey is wild and authentic to its excellent past vintages. TASTING NOTES: This wine excels with aromas and flavors of wild, black fruits and hints of minerality. Enjoy it with grilled pork ribs. (Tasted: May 10, 2023, San Rafael, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine reveals an umami-mushroom core, emerging from layers of black cherries and stone. The palate is sophisticated, with juicy tannins perfectly balanced by vibrant acidity, highlighting notes of black plum, wild thyme, and morello cherry.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Rich and round, the 2020 Château Corton-Grancey Grand Cru is a full-bodied, ample and layered wine evocative of raspberries, cherries, sweet spices, peonies and dark chocolate. Built around sweet, powdery tannins, a touch of subtle back-end warmth bears the signature of the hot, dry growing season.
Maison Louis Latour is one of the most highly-respected négociant-éléveurs in Burgundy. Maison Louis Latour is the producer of some of the finest Burgundian wines but has also pioneered the production of fine wines from outside Burgundy's confines. These wines from the Ardèche and the Côteaux de Verdon are slowly gaining esteem for their unmatchable quality outside Burgundy.
All the grapes from the vineyards owned by the Latour family are vinified and aged in the attractive cuverie of Chateau Corton Grancey in Aloxe-Corton. The winery was the first purpose-built cuverie in France and remains the oldest still functioning. A unique railway system with elevators allows the entire wine-making process to be achieved by the use of gravity. This eliminates the threat of oxidation from unnecessary pumping of the must. Since 1985, Louis Latour has been selling the wines of its own vineyards under the name Domaine Louis Latour.
Louis Latour has been a leader in environmentally responsible winemaking for over 15 years. Louis Latour has had ISO 14001 accreditation for Environmental Management Systems since 2003 and has been part of the European association FARRE since 1998- a group of like-minded companies who seek to develop and promote sustainable methods of agriculture.
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.