2014 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

I tasted the wines in this article during my visit to Bonneau du Martray last summer while the Musique et Vin festival was running, a time that today feels like it belongs to another era entirely. Winemaker Emmanuel Hautus showed me a wide range of vintages, all of which were impressive. I had tasted some of these recently, so I can't say I was entirely surprised. Hautus grouped the Corton-Charlemagnes into three flights: 1) vintages of energy (2005, 2014, 2017), 2) weak vintages (1993, 1994, 2011) and 3) recent vintages (2015, 2016) and the very rare red Corton into two flights: 1) older vintages (1991, 1999, 2003) and 2) newer releases (2015, 2017). Although they had been bottled only a few months before this tasting, the 2017s, the first vintage made under new owner Stan Kroenke, point to a very bright future.

Jean-Claude de la Morinière is convinced that his Corton-Charlemagne has been less austere since he began working organically, “even when the new wines have the same technical parameters as earlier vintages.” He believes that organic farming helped to save the foliage after the hailstorm of June 28, healing the wounded vines. Still, he lost one-third of his crop in ’14. I was not able to taste the 2014 last year as it was just beginning its malolactic fermentation at the beginning of June but the finished wine is a stunner.