Hello and Welcome to week 9 of our Wine Berserkers Weekly Appellation tasting series. Last week, we discussed Hautes Côte de Nuits. Let’s pick up the discussion this week while we focus on the wines of Corton along with surrounding appellations of Ladoix, Aloxe, and Pernand.
Santé
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While I don’t have any Corton ‘in stock’ at the moment, I did very much enjoy these two from Camille Giroud late last year.
2003 Camille Giroud Aloxe-Corton 1er Cru Les Guérets - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Aloxe-Corton 1er Cru (11/10/2009)
As with the other vintage of this wine I’ve previously enjoyed, (2005) this vintage is also very “New World” in style. Lots of dark cherry and spice on the nose with a very fruit forward flavor that manages to somehow retain an extra level of complexity by adding a nice tobacco element towards the finish. This is very tasty and would be a great wine to bring CA Pinot lovers over to the dark side. However, true Burgundy “purists” might not like it so much. (92 pts.)
2005 Camille Giroud Aloxe-Corton 1er Cru Les Guérets - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Aloxe-Corton 1er Cru (8/11/2009)
Popped and poured and consumed over a period of about 3 hours. This wine still retains a little of that old world charm and character while showing a good deal of black cherry fruit mixed with a touch of spicy oak. Acidity is nicely managed and there is a very slight bit of an earthy tone towards the finish. Got better and better with airtime. This is about as close to new world pinot as I have had from Burgundy. Very much resembles high end Oregon Pinot Noir. I really enjoyed this wine and I’ll definitely try some of the other bottlings from this producer. (91 pts.)
Posted from CellarTracker
Hey Ray, I assume this is with Corton-Charlemagne included?
Yup, you got it. Sorry about excluding it in the description.
2005 D’Ardhuy Corton Hautes Mourottes Grand Cru
A fair dose of lightly toasted oak to start, there’s a big mouthful of black cherry fruit with just a trace of red. Ripe with good acidity, punchy and youthful. More Californian than my preference but not without some sous bois and secondary interest. Tongue tingling tannins. Bold and brawny. Hands off my last one for several years.
RT
Do you think it was perhaps heat damaged?
Not really. Mostly young and brash. Noticed more oak and less mushroom/earth than my last bottle in December. Kind of surprised that it never really shut down.
RT
We had lots of great discussion of the appellations as we worked our way through the Northern Half, and I’m sure the Cote de Beaune will as well. There are QPR values all over Burgundy, but perhaps a greater concentration of them in the Southern Half. Here is my personal (and very amatuer) classment of Ladoix, Aloxe, and Pernand. I’ll comment only on the red wines, as I no longer buy any whites, and frankly I try not to think about them, but I’m sure others will comment as we work through the Cote de Beaune.
First division grand crus (roughly upper half of all red grand crus):
Corton-Clos du Roi (10.7 ha in this lieu-dit). Clos du Roi is a sentimental favorite, and is the most complete wine of the Corton hill IMO, maybe half a step ahead of Bressandes. So I placed it in the top rank… YMMV.
Second division grand crus:
Corton excluding Clos du Roi (roughly 76 ha of producing pinot noir vines). I’m not proposing demotions, but if I were, there would be some here, and also a few in the appellations already discussed in prior weeks.
Quasi-Grand 1er Crus:
(None)
Top 1er Crus (roughly top 20-25% of all red 1er crus):
Ile de Vergelesses (9.4 ha in Pernand-Vergelesses).
Other 1er Crus … Ladoix has 23 ha of premier crus, Aloxe has nearly 38 ha, Pernand has over 47 ha excluding the Ile de Vergelesses listed above. As in the grand cru, many of the 1ers are permitted to grow red or white. Other than Ile de Vergelesses, my experience is rather limited unfortunately.
Maps of the three individual communes are confusing IMO because all three communes come together to make up the Corton/Corton Charlemagne grand cru. The best map I have found shows how they fit together.
The grand cru covers 160.2 ha and all of it is technically legal to grow pinot noir and label it Corton. About 71.9 ha of the total is eligible for Corton Charlemagne if chardonnay, and 88.3 would label as Corton blanc if chardonnay (but rarely seen as it is mostly pinot noir). If you have read this far, you can tell I have been searching for some statistics to help me get a grip on this confusing grand cru, and I found it very surprising to learn that 15 ha of the 160.2 is not in production, presumably areas being replanted plus some area lost to roads, buildings, etc. Here is the 2007 breakdown based on official harvest declarations:
86.65 ha Corton (rouge)
6.85 ha Corton (blanc)
51.68 ha Corton Charlemagne (blanc)
15.0 ha Not Declared in 2007 (similar in '05 and '08 also).
I understand that where Corton Charlemagne is permitted, it is more profitable than pinot noir, and yet there is 20 ha eligible for CC that is either planted to pinot or not in production. I’ve been told the gradual trend is to replant these plots to chardonnay, so perhaps that explains some of the 15 ha not currently in production.
Corton rouge is sure to achieve a higher profile from DRC’s acquisition (long-term lease) of 2.3 ha of Clos du Roi, Bressandes, and Renardes from Domaine Prince de Merode. That has got to be good for the whole neighborhood.
“Good for the neighborhood” in what sense, Lew? That the rest will seem like steals by comparison when DRC really gets its paws on the Merode holdings…which were terrific and well priced, though the victim of some less-than-great winemaking after Pierre Bitouzet left as regisseur in the late '90s?
It will be interesting…to see…if DRC can really add any value to the mix…that will justify its added cost to the consumer. A similar issue, maybe, to Laurent’s added value…though not really the same.
Really, Stuart? I was under the impression that those Cortons had significantly improved from 2002 onwards. The 2003 Cortons belonged to the very limited group of wines from that vintage I thought were excellent and very well-made. I don’t exactly know who was making the wines during that period, but I can find out if anyone’s interested.
Quite frankly, I’m concerned that the stratospheric Corton prices which DRC will undoubtetly come out with will instigate a price hike amongst other producers. Since there is no way the market will support it, the “neighbourhood” might end up going to the dogs instead of profiting from DRC presence, as Lew put it.
Your last point was really my reaction, Mike.
RE: Merode…I visited and paid attention through the '80s and '90s…and lost touch after the '90s when they were bad. So, I have no idea what went on after 2000. The '85, 88, 89, and '90 Clos du Rois…all of which I own or owned…were excellent wines and really well priced. After 2000, I continued to buy Bitouzet’s Cortons (he continued as a metayeur;) and those of Philippe Senard, which were excellent in 2005.
Hopefully there will be more tasting notes this week. Open those cortons people!
I have a 05 Bouchard Le Corton on deck for tonight.
now that’s taking one for the team! i have some 05 Bouchard Le Corton on deck… for 2030… I look forward to hearing your impressions.
I just have one bottle. For whatever reason if I only have 1 bottle of something I can’t resist opening it.
Stuart, Corton has nearly double the acreage of pinot noir of Clos de Vougeot, the second largest grand cru, and yet Corton is relatively “under the radar” for most Burgundy buyers. So I think it will be good for Corton to have DRC on board. Part of the reason Burgheads shy away from Corton, of course, is the length of time it takes for Corton to mature and the austere profile of the young wines. I suspect DRC will help some folks to realize the wines can be worth the long wait. That would be “good for the neighborhood” IMO, but maybe not good for existing Corton fans who feel the wines are undervalued now.
BTW, I don’t understand your reference to Laurent…?
this
From a dinner we had tonight:
TNs: Various Young Burgs, Rhys, Rieslings, Others - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
2007 Jadot Corton Pougets Grand Cru - Oak and purple flower perfume on the nose. Lots of concentration and fruit intensity. Ripe but well structured. A serious wine with depth and power yet retains a ballerina’s grace. The intensity almost seems to pick up and expand on the finish. Corton in general seems to have done very well in 2007. Should gain lots of complexity with age.
I guess I just don’t see how, other than making the others seem great values, a trophy producer like DRC benefits the others. I don’t think their Grands Echezaux or Echezaux does anything to benefit their appellations; to the contrary, everyone looks at them as relatively undesirable, pedestrian appellations by comparison to the trophier DRC stuff. Ditton when Mme. Leroy has holdings…in say Vosne Beaux Monts…it doesn’t do anything for the rest of the gang there. Corton is “under the radar” only in the sense that it is variable because it is so large and varied and so many producers make wine from that hill, IMO. I guess it goes back to what Burgundy is really about…and DRC, Leroy, Coche, etc. etc. are, for me, the Donald Trumps, rather than what Americans are… 
What does the Donald add to a neighborhood…is open to debate. It’s not all bad or good, I guess.
RE: Laurent, I meant that Laurent’s “added value” to the neighborhood is that he buys certain wines, adds his brand/mystique/signature elevage…and sells the same wine for a lot more than the same wine say from Chevillon, who he buys much of his Nuits from in the first place. Again, it allows him to sell wine for more…but doesn’t do much for the rest of the Nuits…or Chevillon. I think DRC’s effect on the Merode holdings is likely to be that: a new label, maybe better wine…and a jump up in price…for DRC. (And, it could make Corton seem like a low-rent district if people start looking at it like a step below their Echez., which they probably will.)
Frankly, my real sense is that DRC in Corton won’t make any difference, good or bad for the neighborhood, just like Laurent hasn’t to those appellations he buys.
Although probably only a google away, could someone post a list of red Corton bottlings? Which would be labelled Corton-Charlemagne if they were whites?
RT
Hello everyone. The extreme heat seems to have loosened its hold on my area and more reasonable temperatures are making serious red wine seem more interesting to me again.
I just opened a bottle of 2005 Latour Corton Grancey, and intend to let it breathe all day. I was thinking about it and I have very little experience with Latour portfolio wines. Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems that the reputation seems to be less than that of the other big negociants, at least compared to Jadot, Drouhin, Bouchard, and Faiveley.
So I wonder what thoughts any of you have on Latour or on the Corton Grancey particularly, and what I should expect? FWIW it smelled quite nice when I opened the bottle and I had to put it down quickly because I don’t think it would do much for my productivity to have a glass at 8 AM.
Thanks