Last week we took a vicarious stroll around the Cote de Beaune courtesy of an excellent Domaine de Montille tasting here in London. We popped 10 bottles on the table from vintages 2010 to 2013 and highlights included a juicy, youthful Bourgogne Rouge 2013, a Beaune Greves 2010 and a wonderfully ethereal Volnay Taillepieds 2011. However, again and again we found ourselves coming back to the whites – quite an achievement for a Domaine famed for their reds! Such sleek, juicy, fruity, mineral flavours are hard to come by, yet somehow Etienne’s Corton Charlemagne 2011 has it just right. Initially closed and a little muscular, within half an hour it had unfurled, disposing of brawn and replacing it with tensile, crystalline fruit and clear substance. Tangy mandarin pith and lemon oil, peach skin, greengages and suave textures are accented by wonderfully saline oyster shells. This is eminently drinkable yet serious, yielding more and more complexity with every sip.
Allen Meadows, tasting it from barrel:
Read MoreThis is also wonderfully fresh and pure with a nose of Granny Smith apples, lemon rind, white flowers and wet stone. There is plenty of size and weight to the sleekly muscular flavors that enjoy excellent mid-palate density while displaying an intense minerality on the saline, dry and lengthy finish. In much the same fashion as the Narvaux this will need some bottle age to develop better depth but the potential is certainly present. This is a Corton-Charlemagne of power and finesse.
91-94pts Burghound
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