Corton Charlemagne Dinner

A great chance to evaluate Corton Charlemagne: The format was double blind (other than knowledge of each being Corton Charlemagne) served in 4 flights side by side. Paired with a lovely meal at 110 Taillevent London.

• 1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon 96 Points

  France, Champagne

  Possibly a bit more developed than I would have expected - however nothing taking away from its qualities: Lovely deep nuttiness, creme brulee, coffee, some acidic lift on the mineral finish. Lingers long. Very good aged Dom! Already in a nice sweet spot for drinking. Drink now-2035 (from standard).

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• 2012 Louis Jadot Corton-Charlemagne Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot 95 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Served blind. Great nose, matchstick, white fruits, quite reductive. Salty and smokey on the spicy palate, vibrant and zesty. Pretty awesome actually. Shocked when the label was revealed as I have with the exception of a CSJ93 only had bad experiences with Jadot (mediocre wines and/or corked). So a really nice surprise and also the cheapest wines in the line-up. In contention to be my #2 wine of the night behind Coche. Bravo. Drinks now but with long drinking window ahead. A wine I "had" to purchase a case of for my cellar, and I really hadn't thought I'd ever be buying any Jadot wines.

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• 2011 Méo-Camuzet Frère et Sœurs Corton-Charlemagne 90 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Served blind. Much lighter than the Jadot 12 and Dugat Py 11 in this flight. I remarked this to be Chassagne-esque in style and I wouldn't have thought this from Corton Charlemagne. A bit of smoke, chalky, white nectarines, quite sweet, pretty but too easy for a GC.

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• 2011 Bernard Dugat-Py Corton-Charlemagne 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Served blind. Not too dissimilar to the Jadot 12 in this flight with this just taking second spot in this flight behind the Jadot for me. Nose similar to Jadot but for me maybe not quite as engaging / fascinating but the good stuff is all there (reductive, matchstick). I picked up some bitter notes on palate and it seemed a bit tight which is why I gave the Jadot the preference. A very good wine this Dugat Py though for sure and long window ahead.

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• 2005 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne 90 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Served blind. Pretty nose of orange peel, lemon zest. On the palate some resolved extract. Nothing wrong with this, really nice wine. But just lacking the certain something on this blind line-up for me. A bit harmless.

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• 1983 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne 91 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Served blind. Visually very developed - copper / fox colour in the glass. The nose shows lovely brioche, orange marmalade. On the palate a bit off dry, toffee and salt. In a way it reminded me of Domaine Bongran wines in their off dry style and depth. This divided the group and some found it to be off. I don't think it was in fact I quite enjoyed it to be just WOTF for me in the weakest flight this evening. It certainly just past its prime. A wine to enjoy with cheese.

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• 1983 Remoissenet Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne Flawed

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Served blind. For me the only flawed bottle. Other disagreed including the sommelier. This had cheese notes on the nose, on the plate I got brine, vegetal, bitterness. I am quite sensitive to traces of brett and this one for me was faulty. The colour was actually quite young compared to the other 83 next to it it looked fresh like a daisy. Can only wonder how this would have shown if clean bottle...

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• 2000 Henri Boillot Corton-Charlemagne 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Served blind. Musty and zesty - white nectarine, pear, some bacon, long finish saline and quite complete. Came across a bit high alcohol to me. It looked really good until I got to taste the Coche 99 after it.

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• 1999 Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne 97 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Served blind. Reduction, matchstick. Tightly coiled with lots of energy, lemon peel. Unanimously WOTF for everyone at the table. I would have guessed this way younger. It kept getting better and better with time in the glass and was very nutty towards the end. Shame there was only a glass each. Very very good white wine no doubt. If maybe not quite magical enough to give an even higher score. 95-97 and highest of banded score for the way it developed in the glass which makes me think I might not have seen the best of this (maybe a decant would have brought that out). Will most likely remain an academic question as I wouldn't be prepared to pay the market price for this and pick up another bottle to put it to the test. Privilege to try this in any event and thanks for sharing this Sidney.

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• 1999 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne 90 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Served blind. Fresh, vibrant, appeared young, some lemon curd. Pleasant but a bit short. Nice wine on its own but not holding up in this flight side by side a 99 Coche...

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• 2014 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Corton-Charlemagne 91 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Served blind. A bit of a let-down as I usually love PYMC wines and every single one I had to date I enjoyed immensely. Today this wine was quite unremarkable. Lean, zesty, nice but couldn't peg the PYMC style on this at all. Lacking the reductive fireworks I associate here.

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• 2017 Pierre Girardin Corton-Charlemagne 94 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Served blind - clearly bested the PYMC in the glass next to it. Wow - lemon curd, precision & cut, painfully concentrated almost. After Coche probably the next best of the pack together with Jadot for me that night. And just like the Jadot one of the cheapest wines of the night.

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• 2014 Domaine Chandon de Briailles Corton-Charlemagne 90 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Tasted blind - my notes ended here for the evening, from memory though this was putting in just an OK performance which wasn't up there with Vincent Girardin just before.

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• 2014 Domaine de Montille Corton-Charlemagne 91 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Tasted blind. Notes ended here as the evening got late. From memory decent performance but a bit green and unresolved needing/deserving more time. Not up there though with the best that evening.

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Another highly educational and enjoyable evening. Many thanks to Sidney for the organisation and contributions of everyone for the night. The venue worked very well as the team at 110 London around Christopher always does an amazing job.

Personal take-aways of the night were:

1) Corton Charlemagne can produce great wines - generally quality level was high but at times a bit variable.
2) Coche 99 was WOTN unanimously for the group - fortunately and unfortunately (truly great wine but for my money not necessarily "market" value great)
3) Some wines in the ~20 year age bracket seemed a lot younger than their age might suggest (Bonneau Martray 99, Boillot 00, Coche 99 etc.)
4) There were some good value stand-outs for me in the form of mainly Jadot 12, Pierre Vincent Girardin 17 while other more lauded producers fell a bit short of expectations (Meo Camuzet, Bonneau du Martray maybe)
5) A well aged champagne can give some top whites a run for the money - hand on heart I would have traded in another glass of DP96 over quite a few of the Corton Charlemagnes for my personal preference
6) Probably I personally lean more towards seeking out Puligny / Chassagne 1er cru at similar price points over some of the Corton Charlemagnes