Corton Rouge - Old and New

WINE TALK
1

Burgundy - Corton blanc et rouge
Scopri restaurant

Excellent food and service as usual. Seven participants.
All wines were tasted blind. All participants contributed wines but each did not know the wines others were bringing. I was the organiser so I knew the entire line up and filled the gaps with extra bottles. The ranking is shown alongside the bottle (1 is tops).

Champagne
1990 Dom Perignon Oenotheque

Corton-Charlemange
2010 PYCM Corton-Charlemange (Pernand/Aloxe) 2
2010 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemange (Pernand/Aloxe) 1

1998/1999 Corton rouge bracket
1998 Prince de Merode Clos du Roi (Aloxe) 1
1998 Prince de Merode Corton Renardes (Aloxe) 3
1999 Chandon de Briailles Corton Bressandes (Aloxe) 4
1999 Rapet Corton (Les Pougets and Les Perrieres, Aloxe) 2


2010 Corton rouge bracket
2010 Faiveley Clos des Cortons (Rognet, Ladoix) 2
2010 Dubreuil-Fontaine Corton Clos du Roi (Aloxe) 1
2012 Maldant Corton Les Grandes Lolieres (Ladoix) 3
2010 Dupont Tissenderot Rognet (Rognet, Ladoix) 4

2012 Corton rouge bracket
2012 Faiveley Clos des Cortons (Rognet, Ladoix) 1
2012 Dubreuil-Fontaine Clos du Roi (Aloxe) 2
2012 Maldant Corton Les Grandes Lolieres (Ladoix) 3

Port
1975 Hardys Museum Release Port

Tasting Notes:

1990 Dom Perignon Oenotheque
Good colour and still bubbling. Most picked it as possibly 1996 to 1998. It had intensity and depth but it lacked the desired acid drive and thus looked a bit broad. It was not as attractive as before.

Corton-Charlemange
2010 PYCM Corton-Charlemange (Pernand/Aloxe) 2
2010 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemange (Pernand/Aloxe) 1
I had the 2010 Corton- Charlemange yesterday. Intense chewy fruit. Colour was nice but the bottle just lacked the energy that I would have expected in a 2010 and there was a feeling within my wine group that it was showing the faintest hint of premox. The wax capsule was perfect and so was the cork. Purchased at release and kept at 15C.

I thought PYCM were a bit immune to premox but my friend reported another bottle of 2010 PYCM Meursault which had obvious premox.

The Bonneau on the other hand was fresh as a daisy. There was matchstick sulphur evident which eventually blew off to reveal the underneath fruit. More linear than PYCM but good persistence on the palate and very attractive. I had gone off Bonneau du Martray for quite a few years because of premox issues but todays showing was welcome.

1998/1999 Corton rouge bracket
1998 Prince de Merode Clos du Roi (Aloxe) 1
1998 Prince de Merode Corton Renardes (Aloxe) 3
1999 Chandon de Briailles Corton Bressandes (Aloxe) 4
1999 Rapet Corton (Les Pougets and Les Perrieres, Aloxe) 2
The Rapet and de Merode Clos du Roi came from ultra cool cellar and they looked fresh as a daisy. The main difference was that the de Merode Clos du Roi looked very attractive to drink now as it was very open and inviting whereas the rapet while lshowing excellent fruit appeared to be still coiled up and wanting a few more years to unfurl. Nobody picked there were two de Merode in that bracket as the Renardes looked quite different. More rustic with a touch of leather. Chandon de Briailles looked very odd initially on opening but with time in glass settled down and the off flavours/nose dissipated. Again looked more rustic and gamey but with more or less resolved tannins.

2010 Corton rouge bracket
2010 Faiveley Clos des Cortons (Rognet, Ladoix) 2
2010 Dubreuil-Fontaine Corton Clos du Roi (Aloxe) 1
2012 Maldant Corton Les Grandes Lolieres (Ladoix) 3
2010 Dupont Tissenderot Rognet (Rognet, Ladoix) 4
There was a huge stylistic change in the younger Cortons. Vibrant fruit. Its plusher style without any rusticity that was a hallmark of the older vintages (in this tasting and in general). There was not many points seperating these wines. All were uniformly good with stylistic changes. The Dubriel-Fontaine appeared the most feminine and uber attractive. The new Faiveley regimen showed how attractive this wine can be. It has amazing florals and length. The Maldant was medium bodied with great finesse. The Dupont looked bigger and more intense but also most backward. It would need more time to coax the best out of it.

2012 Corton rouge bracket
2012 Faiveley Clos des Cortons (Rognet, Ladoix) 1
2012 Dubreuil-Fontaine Clos du Roi (Aloxe) 2
2012 Maldant Corton Les Grandes Lolieres (Ladoix) 3
Like the 2010 the 2012 also showed the polish and refinement in style that perhaps has become the norm. Accidently, there were two 2012 Maldant Corton Les Grandes Lolieres. The wine from the earlier bracket was revealed as a 2012 only after the bottle was unblended. One person had picked the wrong vintage by mistake. The idea of this bracket was to compare the 2012 vintage of the wines from the earlier bracket (2010). Again, all wines showed extremely well and it was splitting hairs to rank them. Overall, there was a feeling that 2010 has more acid drive and thus vibrancy than 2012.

Port
1975 Hardys Museum Release Port
There were few top “vintage port” makers in Australia from the days gone by - Reynella, Saltram and Hardys. This wine re-released as a ‘museum release’ approx. 20 years ago. It looked very fresh back then and even now. The base wine being shiraz its notably sweeter and richer than the ones from Portugal. I liked the style although two long time Vintage Port drinkers in the group felt it a bit too sweet, less refined and mono-dimensional.

2

Interesting notes. Thanks.

I ought to look for some Dubreuil Fontaine Corton Clos du Roi!

3

I think I got lucky - grabbed some bottles of the 2010 of this last summer on sale at a retailer for $55 each. Have not tried one yet, but Sanjay’s note is promising!

Cheers,
Blair

4

just gotta say that Cortons from 98/99 are nowhere old. For me, for Corton to shine, 30-50 years are needed. Yours were mere adolescents but fortunately enjoyable.

5

I have enjoyed some younger ones, but I have to say that in the last couple years I had a few 1985s that at age 30-32 were truly outstanding…exceeding expectations.

Cheers,
Blair

6

7 people for all that wine? That’s either a huge waste of good wine, or a future AA meeting roll call.

7

We had a few more wines which we took out as few participants pulled out in the last moment due to family reasons.

We share wine liberally with restaurant staff and also take wine home to see how it taste the next day. So all is not lost.

Sometimes there are faulty bottles so the few extra wines are an insurance against such possibility.

We could argue ad nauseum on this board as to the ‘correct’ number of bottles that should be drunk in such events and what is excess. Furthermore, there are others who would consider this entire concept of drinking wines in such a setting is an abhorrence and only one wine bottle must be drunk at any given time at that too slowly at home.

8

I agree. It would have been good to have included a 30+ year bracket. But most of us did not have the requisite wines.

The concept behind this tasting was to test the hypothesis that there has been stylistic changes in Corton wines and that the recent vintages are more accessible. To that extent we succeeded within the limited sample size we tasted. It is just conjecture but entirely possible that if we had a 30 year old bracket they would have still looked immature and wanting for more time in the bottle.

9

As I’ve said in threads elsewhere, I agree with Alan. For me, Corton, and most serious Pommard doesn’t get interesting until 20-30 years. I don’t buy it much because I can’t wait that long.

I agree that there has been a stylistic change at several estates, making the wines drinkable at an earlier age. Faiveley would be the best example of this. But the wines, while enjoyable, seem contrived to me, much like drinking a modernist Barolo, vinified to be drinkable younger. I really have no interest in that sort of wine. I don’t know what these new Faiveley’s will be like at 30 years.

10

I have consumed three magnificent bottles of ‘85 Jadot Pougets over the last one year, no doubt they would last another 10 to 20 years.

11

That makes sense to me to me given Erwin took over in 2006 and made a point to stop making wines in such a rustic style. That said I’m surprised these showed as well as they did given the vintage and vineyard. I’ve got a couple of those '10 Faiveley Clos des Cortons and have them stored in a mate’s cellar to stop myself from being tempted! Ideally I don’t want to open them until 15+ years but maybe I should reconsider given the change in house style and the possibility that the focus on elegance from the domaine may not support extended ageing.

12

Andrew,
I don’t agree with the sentiment that the new Faiveleys will not age. Lets say for arguments sake they won’t age to 60 years ; perhaps only to 45 years. Is that going to make a difference to you personally (or to the majority on the board?). Just because the wine looks less rustic and more refined why would it affect its ageing. Indeed, it will have a longer drinking window. BTW, no one says Rousseau are so elegant so they cannot age.

13

Great points Sanjay, thanks for responding. I guess I was just more surprised with how well those '10s showed for y’all given their relative lack of age combined with historical vineyard characteristics. I’ve always tried to stay away from young Cortons most likely because people much more knowledgeable and experienced in these wines (like Alan for instance) routinely state they need decades in bottle before reaching their peak. And you’re right too, I’ll be 77 when my '10 Faiveleys reach 45 years old. Fingers crossed I make it that long!

Bang on about Rousseau too.