2023 Le Corton Grand Cru

This Burgundy grandee is in the middle of a transitional phase, following its acquisition by Groupe Artémis, joining Clos du Tart and Domaine d’Eugénie in Burgundy. This resulted in a major reorganization that will play out over the coming vintages. Essentially, Domaine d’Eugénie will take over Bouchard Père’s holdings in the Côte de Nuits (separate from Clos du Tart, of course) whilst Bouchard Père will comprise everything from Montrachet to Corton-Charlemagne, the Côte de Beaune. Read on for explanations of where these wines will eventually be vinified.

One of significant decisions made almost immediately was a cessation of their négociant business, following Artémis’ strict policy of only producing wine from vineyards they own and have full control over, hence their decision to relinquish William Fèvre to the Rothschilds. One thing that has not changed is head winemaker Frédéric Weber, and the only downside of that decision is that you have to keep disambiguating between two Frédérics, Engerer being in charge of the entire Artémis portfolio. Speaking to Weber, he expressed the pleasure in overseeing a portfolio now exclusively consisting of Domaine holdings and therefore no longer dealing with the myriad of cuvées made from purchased fruit and all that entails.

“This is the first year that we will only sell wines from the Domaine,” Weber explains at their Beaune HQ. “The team has more time to focus on the vineyards, the vinification and élevage. We are 100% organic in the vineyard and have expanded biodynamics over the last three years so that 21 hectares are presently tended that way, including the entirety of Beaune Clos de la Mousse and Clos Saint-Landry. Now, this is being rolled out to the flagship Grand Crus….”

I ask how this played out in the wet 2024 season.

“We had to do 19 sprays in 2024,” Weber answers. “We are using more grass cover crops to increase organic matter, planting trees in the vineyard to increase biodiversity and investing in new tractors. We plow the soils a lot, though I would like to decrease that in the future.”

Weber then offers some specifics about vineyard changes in the Côte de Beaune. “We have exchanged some vineyards with Roulot and de Montille. We exchanged a small part of Genevrières [see Roulot Producer Profile] and some Beaune Premier Crus in the Château de Puligny-Montrachet acquisition, where we plan to build a new winery. We hope it will be ready for 2026 or 2027, but it is complex because the water table is high. There is also just over two hectares of Bourgogne Chardonnay. We also purchased Meursault Charmes, Perrières and Echézeaux that were previously fermage, so there’s not much difference for me [in terms of day-to-day running].”

We then moved on to the subject for our morning tasting: 2023.

“The 2023 was a warm and dry vintage, certainly the warmest in history, but with less sunlight hours than 2020 or 2022. The winter was very dry and hot, but there was more storm activity and rain during summer. Flowering began at the end of May and finished June 6. The homogenous flowering resulted in huge “sortis” of bunches, so we had to recruit more people to conduct green harvest in July. We cut off half the bunches of Pinot Noir to maintain six bunches per vine. There was high oidium pressure for the Chardonnay, so we cut some leaves to improve the air circulation. On July 11 there was a huge storm with hail. It was severe in Meursault, where we lost 40% of the crop, mainly in Perrières, Genevrières, Porusots and Bouchère. There was no hydric stress that enabled us to have balanced wines.”

“August was special. We had a heatwave that caused some stress and dried some berries. Then, there was a storm around August 28 that saw 25 mm of rain. There was a short period of cloudy and cool weather that retarded maturation of the Pinot Noir. So, we had to wait. Soon after, there was a second heatwave from September 6, which was crazy because I’d already told the team that we could wait. [Suddenly] we had to hurry to pick at the right moment. The Pinot Noir and Chardonnay developed very differently after the August storm: the Pinot Noir halted its evolution, whereas the Chardonnay’s pH developed faster than the alcoholic potential, which can be dangerous. This is why I started the picking with Chardonnay. Finally, we began picking on September 4 and harvested over the next nine days. Yields are around 42 hl/ha for the red and 40 hl/ha for the white, the latter smaller partly due to coulure and millerandage. We pressed quickly, eliminating the end of the vin de presse to maintain purity and avoid high pH, with the light settling. Some of the wines have been racked and transferred into foudres. The alcohol is around 13% for whites and reds, which I am pleased with.”

This was a fine set of wines from Domaine Bouchard Père and you can already see more consistency creeping in because the team no longer have to juggle so many balls, so to speak. The 2023 Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte is quite sensational, the Meursault Charmes and Genevrières certainly up to the standard of that appellation’s finest. As expected, the reds were more up and down compared to the whites, although I thoroughly recommend the Corton Grand Cru and the Beaune Les Grèves Vigne de L'Enfant Jesus.

It was recently announced that Bouchard Père & Fils’ 2023s will not be put onto the market until 2026.