2012 Corton Charlemagne

Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2012 tasting in Beaune. The 2012 Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru from Bonneau du Martray was showing signs of reduction on the nose but it is not as combined as I might have feared. The palate has a touch of bitterness on the entry, disjointed compared to its peers and yet Bonneau du Martray is often like that in its youth, coming together with bottle age. I scored this quite severely and yet one could still detect a great wine in the making, albeit one of the next decade, not this.

Bright yellow with green highlights. Explosive aromas of ripe peach, crushed stone, lavender sea salt and spices. Wonderfully rich and broad without any excess weight, with strong acidity and crushed-stone minerality leavening the fine-grained flavors of orange cream and fleur de sel . Best today on the slowly building, refined finish, which leaves the mouth vibrating with stone and white grapefruit. This wine appears to be shutting down in bottle, which de la Morinière notes is typical for his Corton-Charlemagne after a year or so. Outstanding potential here: I may be underrating this wine today.

Bright yellow with green highlights. Explosive aromas of ripe peach, crushed stone, lavender sea salt and spices. Wonderfully rich and broad without any excess weight, with strong acidity and crushed-stone minerality leavening the fine-grained flavors of orange cream and fleur de sel. Best today on the slowly building, refined finish, which leaves the mouth vibrating with stone and white grapefruit. This wine appears to be shutting down in bottle, which de la Morinière notes is typical for his Corton-Charlemagne after a year or so. Outstanding potential here: I may be underrating this wine today.