2009 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

Once again, I tasted with Jacques Lardière and Frédéric Barnier during a marathon session that lasted several hours. Lardière has been on a whirlwind tour celebrating his last year at Jadot before his long-announced retirement, but I will believe he is stepping down when I see it. Lifers like Lardière simply don't retire. As for the wines, Jadot's 2010s are unqualified successes across the board. Of course, the wines from the most prestigious appellations are often compelling, but frankly I find just as much joy in discovering the many fabulous Burgundies from unheralded villages that are sprinkled throughout this portfolio. Lardière and Barnier first thought 2010 was better for reds than whites, but that gap has narrowed recently in their opinion. Yields were down 15-20% for the whites (less than the reds), because of the December, 2009 frost and irregular flowering the following spring. A number of wines were chaptalized approximately 0.5%. The 2010 whites were bottled between February and March 2012. I also tasted a handful of 2009s and 2008s, which I have included here as part of my goal to revisit wines from bottle on a regular basis. I continue to be thrilled by the Jadot 2009 whites, while the 2008s I tasted are mostly equally succesful. Jadot fans know that this venerable winery is composed of several brands; Maison Louis Jadot, Domaine Louis Jadot, Heritiers de Louis Jadot, Domaine Duc de Magenta and Domaine Gagey. In the interest of simplicity, I have listed all of the wines in this section under Domaine/Maison Jadot. There are two cases in which a wine is made by more than one of the labels, in which case the corresponding tasting note indicates which wine was tasted; they are the Chassagne-Montrachet premier cru Garenne and the Puligny-Montrachet premier cru Folatières.

Jacques Lardiere was concerned from the outset about the harmony of the ripening cycle in 2009. He was also afraid that the tannins and phenols of the wines would clash with the tannins and phenols from the oak barrels. The grapes, after all, had very little juice and thus a strong element of skins. Lardiere told me that his wines go into barrel with 15 to 25 liters of lees, which is one of the highest figures I've heard to date from a Burgundy winemaker.

Jacques Lardière and Frederic Barnier showed me a wide range of 2009s during my visit in late June, 2011. Many of the jewels among the 2009s are hidden in the villages level wines, which I highly encourage readers to check out. I also tasted a selection of 2008s. The 2008s are quite fat for the year. Yields were lower than in 2009. Lardière made the decision to age the wines longer on their lees to give them more richness, which he felt was lacking because of the inconsistent, high acid vintage. As a result, these are fairly big 2008s.