Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru 2018
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Suckling
James -
Spectator
Wine -
Wong
Wilfred - Decanter
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Winemaker Notes
#6 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2021
Corton-Charlemagne 2018 is a powerful, complex wine. Its nose is intense, with notes of white stone fruits such as white peach, fresh hazelnut, vanilla, and almond paste. The wine is full-bodied for the palate, and the vanilla is complemented by aromas of fresh almond and lime blossom. The experience ends with a very fine aromatic aftertaste that has subtle saline notes.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Open and aromatic with honeysuckle flowers, dried apples and mangoes, as well as white peaches and stone. Full-bodied, this grows slowly on the palate with an intense, powerful finish. Lots of cream, cooked apples, lemons and light oak at the very end. Tight and right. Try after 2023.
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Wine Spectator
Fresh and fruity, with aromas and flavors of lemon, pear, white flowers and stone, showing great tension and an underlying mineral component that gives this energy and length. The lemon theme continues on the lingering aftertaste, along with butter and pastry accents. Best from 2022 through 2029.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne is persistent, elevated, and generous on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers tart apples, oak, savory spices, and earth in its aromas and flavors. Pair it with steamed Dungeness crab in a tangy dipping sauce. (Tasted; April 6, 2022, San Rafael, CA)
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Decanter
Despite the heat of the vintage and serious ripeness (14.5% alcohol), this is surprisingly elegant and nuanced. There is a pleasant lemony accent to the ripe tropical flavours coloured with hints of cream, butter, and spice. On the palate, the wine dense but not lacking in freshness. Pleasant now, this will age well.
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Maison Louis Latour is one of the most highly-respected négociant-éléveurs in Burgundy. Maison Louis Latour is the producer of some of the finest Burgundian wines but has also pioneered the production of fine wines from outside Burgundy's confines. These wines from the Ardèche and the Côteaux de Verdon are slowly gaining esteem for their unmatchable quality outside Burgundy.
All the grapes from the vineyards owned by the Latour family are vinified and aged in the attractive cuverie of Chateau Corton Grancey in Aloxe-Corton. The winery was the first purpose-built cuverie in France and remains the oldest still functioning. A unique railway system with elevators allows the entire wine-making process to be achieved by the use of gravity. This eliminates the threat of oxidation from unnecessary pumping of the must. Since 1985, Louis Latour has been selling the wines of its own vineyards under the name Domaine Louis Latour.
Louis Latour has been a leader in environmentally responsible winemaking for over 15 years. Louis Latour has had ISO 14001 accreditation for Environmental Management Systems since 2003 and has been part of the European association FARRE since 1998- a group of like-minded companies who seek to develop and promote sustainable methods of agriculture.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
Prevailing over the charming village of Aloxe, the hill of Corton actually commands the entire appellation. Corton is the only Grand Cru for Pinot Noir in the entire Côte de Beaune. Its Grand Crus red wines can be described simply as “Corton” or Corton hyphenated with other names. These vineyards cover the southeast face of the hill of Corton where soils are rich in red chalk, clay and marl.
Dense and austere when young, the best Corton Pinot Noir will peak in complexity and flavor after about a decade, offering some of the best rewards in cellaring among Côte de Beaune reds. Pommard and Volnay offer similar potential.
The great whites of the village are made within Corton-Charlemagne, a cooler, narrow band of vineyards at the top of the hill that descends west towards the village of Pernand-Vergelesses. Here the thin and white stony soils produce Chardonnay of exceptional character, power and finesse. A minimum of five years in bottle is suggested but some can be amazing long after. Fully half of Aloxe-Corton is considered Grand Cru.