Half bottle.
solidly redfruited. underbrush and smoky tones with cherry. Sweet tannins and not roasted. no heat or alcohol. very foursquare. Corton/Pommard sort of Burg
seemed like a good time to open
a wine bought in a parcel of 24 in honor of a youngest son is so perfect now.
best strength for my medical brothers and sisters
Others (I think Bill Nanson) may have had better luck here, but I was a little underwhelmed myself. “Foursquare” is a good descriptor unfortunately…
Yes, Bouchard Corton can sometimes be “foursquare” but I find it never lets you down in terms of being solid and having good depth of fruit. In some vintages it excels. Haven’t had the 2003 but I thought the 2005 and 2009 were spectacular and, given current (or pre-crisis?) Burgundy prices were significantly underpriced for their quality.
Been a while since I’ve seriously attacked some 03s - but all that I’ve drunk seem to have been in ‘stasis’ - a plateau that’s lasted at least since 2010. The bad ones were already practically dead just 2-3 years after release, the rest have easy ripe fruit and a certain structure, sometimes lush and attractive but they haven’t really changed for the last 10 years. I’ve seen no further maturity. This mirrors ‘fabled’ hot vintages like 47 and 33 - I always consider myself very lucky to drink these wines, but they still have an open, concentrated, easy fruit - Enfant Jesus and Faiveley Musigny my examples from last year. There is still the thrill of drinking such an old wine, in great shape, but it’s more a psychological thrill than a gustatorial thrill. The wines are lovely but simply not great except accounting for age. I expect 03 will follow the same line…
Nice Rob. Haven’t had any 03s lately to I don’t have much experience. Stay safe.
Nice to see a check-in from Klafter. Stay well, buddy!
very descriptive of this wine.
My understanding is Bouchard’s plot of Corton is a cold shadowed corner of the hill, relatively, and was able to best perform in hot years. Can you elaborate on the geography of Bouchard and what this tends to mean in context of Corton?
A few of us had the 03 Baby Jesus a few weeks ago, and ripe and easy fruit is a pretty good description.
Le Corton is perfectly east-facing but right towards the top of the hill up to the trees - almost to the corner but not turning it. You can spot it from a distance as there’s a small tractor building and a large horse-chestnut tree. For potentially cooler areas that probably support the hot weather better, I’d probably be thinking more of Rognets (Faiveley, Méo and Leroy amongst others) and definitely Hautes-Murottes - Ardhuy. These are on the northern end of Corton, quite high for the hautes-murottes, and starting to turn towards the north…