After a great discussion about Meursault and Puligny Montrachet, I'm hoping peeps can discuss what a

WINE TALK
1

“typical” Corton Charlie Is like.

Thank you.

2

My first reply is : Corton Charlie ( at 71.88 ha out of a total of 160.20 ha - according to Coates )…is quite large to have a “typical” [wow.gif] .

3

I find them more austere and mineral driven. They gain fat with age, but retain a mineral core.

4

Matt Kramer -

CC is the most dramatic Chardonnay in the world…not just a matter of fruit…but also pronounced gout de terroir…one deficiency is that it may lack finesse…

A wine of texture…should give sensation of heaviness without actually being heavy…universe of flavor…almost aggressive mineraliness.

Too often not drunk sufficiently mature…

5

6

Does this mean, Ryan, that you will bring the Coche to the next dinner, which Steve has so coincidentally proposed as CC? [rofl.gif]

7

CC should be austere, minerally, steely, with a great core and framework of acidity needing more than a decade to flesh out, very reticent and difficult to approach young.
alan

8

I’ll be on the first plane to the OC if a Coche CC is on the table! [cheers.gif]

9

A couple of producers I’ve talked to who make CC…claim it ages like and behaves somewhat like a red wine made from Corton. Obviously, it’s made from Chardonnay, not pinot noir, but…it is very different from the Meursault-Puligny-Chassagnes expressions of that grape. And, somewhat more versatile as a result, ie, IMO, can be used where one might think of something more structured, like a red, but with the nuance of the Chardonnay not absent.

FWIW

10

Once again, Keith hits it out of the park with not just few words but NO words.

11

No, here is how it will go down. “Hey Frank, this is Nordhoff. Let’s do it up good. Why don’t we all go in on an older Coche AND and, what the heck, a Leroy, too”. I can see it coming already. [swoon.gif] [swoon.gif] [truce.gif]

12

Absolute definition here of Bonneau du Martray. Many are made in that looser knit style with lots of fat and oily texture when young however. Bonneau is prototypical Corton Charlemagne to me.

13

In our house we call Corton-Charlemagne the “Phil Spector” wine, substituting a wall of flavour for the wall of sound. Take a sip and half way through the swallow the wall of flavour appears, not linear like puligny nor full bodied like meursault but a hard wall of taste … or so we delude ourselves.

14

Last two 1999s I uncorked had a delightful sherry-like smell and golden colour…

15

if we go to Alan wongs in Hawaii we can get 07 and 08 coche Charlie for under $800! I wanted to take them home but they wouldn’t let me purchase and take it :frowning:

16

It can be delicious immediately upon release but then can shut down hard for 6-10 years. My experience is that it has a very long window where I find it muted, steel and nails without much “stuffing”. Now to think of it a bit like Musigny blanc - but then I don’t have enough bottles of those to trace it over a decade!!

17

We can generalise about Corton-Charlemagne as we love to generalise about most things and to me generally CC has a scent and taste of preserved lemons and good minerality. It is fun when first released as the wine’s glycerol sheathes the high tensile spine but is the Grand Cru white that perhaps shuts down the hardest (perhaps it doesn’t really and I’m just imagining it).

Producer, like every village in Burgundy, is the key and I’ve tried to give a brief synopsis of my thoughts on the producers I’ve had some exposure to.

Coche-Dury: Simply stunning, one of the greatest wines of Burgundy. Some believe that the wines are heavily stylised but they are in fact pure, dense and chalky with great intensity and concentration. They always show the typical Coche smoky/flintiness on the nose and are made like red wine with big dry extract on the finish.

Bonneau du Martray: The largest vineyard holder here and the wines are readily available. Certainly had some premox issues through 96-04 but the wines are very good. Quite fine, floral and steely in their youth. The wines of the 80’s are superb with wines such as the 85 and 88 still on an upwards trajectory.

Faiveley: Big, rich, oaky wines that have a hint of the exotic and are quite broad shouldered. Perhaps look a little ‘Batard like’ at times.

Bouchard Pere et Fils: I have really liked the 04-08 on release. These are wines of good line. They have plenty of oak but excellent fruit that is commensurate with levels of new oak. The jury is out as to whether premox issues have been sorted out as the 02’s were problematic.

Leroy: To me these wines are quite stylised. They are big and smoky (almost in a Montrachet kind of way) and have plenty of candied and exotic, ripe fruit notes. They are muscular wines that take many years to unfurl.

18

What is ‘peeps’ btw Kim? I’m assuming it’s some kinda ‘home boy’ talk and that I is one since I am discussing.

19

+1 Agree 100%

20

Can’t talk about Corton Charlie without talking about Henri Boillot. That’s a big, dense, rich, mineral driven corton c if there ever was one.