2023 Corton Grand Cru

Simon Follin-Arbelet greets me in a baseball cap with scruffy hair underneath. He looks like the Ed Sheeran of Aloxe-Corton, but with far superior music taste. As is customary, we exchange views on what has been tickling our ears in recent weeks before broaching the vino. Music and wine, eternal partners-in-crime.

This Aloxe-Corton-based producer was in the headlines recently after luxury house LVMH acquired Domaine Poisot. Follin-Arbelet gave me the lowdown of what is a complex story that connects Poisot with his own family, too long to enter detail here. Suffice to say that for the time being, Follin-Arbelet will continue to produce their Romanée-Saint-Vivant owned by Poisot, albeit in reduced quantities, around two barrels per year depending on the growing season. In the meantime, I tasted through their 2023s down in their barrel cellar. He told me that the heatwave from August 24 meant that the Pinot Noir gained two degrees in alcohol within a week. “We had already bought some sugar for possible chaptalization as the fruit had seemed unripe, but in the end, some of the grapes were almost overripe. We were planning to start picking on September 11, but we pushed it earlier to September 9. Normally, we do it in seven days, but we did it in just five. Yields were not excessively high as the berries contained less juice than we expected. Alcohol levels are between 13.5% and 14.5%.”

A bit like my previous visit nearby at Domaine Tollot-Beaut in Chorey-lès-Beaune, this is a portfolio almost split into two. Some cuvées, like the Aloxe-Corton Village, reveal traits of sur-maturité while others, like the Corton-Bressandes and Romanée-Saint-Vivant, are right on the button, exhibiting much more freshness and red fruit instead of black. "