Wine Advisor
Bonneau du Martray, Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru 2010
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2010 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru offers an enticing array of marine scents on the nose: cockle shells and estuarine aromas. Give it a couple more minutes and watch those lovely grilled walnut scents flourish and multiply so that is ends up almost Meursault Perrieres in character. The palate makes an immediate impression on the entry with that subtle nutty theme continuing, partnered with racy acidity, superb concentration and a long, tense finish that is energetic and surfeit with mineralite, flint popping up on the finish. So delicious you could broach a bottle now - but that would be depriving you of what will be in a decade-s time! Drink 2016-2035. Time to fill in a small gap of notes relating to the most significant grower in the Corton hill - Bonneau du Martray. Jean-Charles suggested we taste recent vintages together after the 2012s, which I was more than happy to do. A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet, various American importers, including: Atlanta Wholesale Wines, Atlanta, GA; tel. (404) 696-9440; C-est Vin, Arlington, VA; tel. (703) 243-3559; Scott Paul Wines, Oregon; tel. (503) 852-7300, Wines Unlimited, New Orleans, LA; tel. (504) 897-0191
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2010 Corton-Charlemagne is the epitome of elegance, finesse and refinement in white Burgundy. Readers will have a very, very hard time finding a wine with this much pure class and textural finesse. Smoke, flint, crushed rocks and citrus all flow through to the vibrant, pointed finish. Today, the 2010 is incredibly tight, and needs more time in bottle to soften. It is a dazzling wine endowed with laser-like focus and tons of purity. Anticipated maturity: 2015+. Sometimes I wish Bonneau de Martray made more wines, as my tastings with Jean-Charles le Bault de la Moriniere are always much too brief. Readers will find wines of impeccable polish and class at this small domaine tucked in the hillsides of Pernand-Vergelesses. De la Moriniere told me that he hoped to make the red Corton once again available to the estate’s customers in the US, which is great news, although it hasn’t happened yet. According to de la Moriniere, 2009 was a year unlike any other he has seen for its consistent, uninterrupted good weather. The harvest started on September 9th. Yields came in at 39.4 hectoliters per hectare for the Corton-Charlemagne and 27.05 hectoliters per hectare for the Corton. The Corton-Charlemagne finished its malo in June 2010, while the Corton started its malo in May, 2010 and finished in August. Both of the 2009s were bottled in Spring 2011. By contrast, the 2010s were brought in beginning on September 23, after a year characterized by an irregular flowering that lowered yields and an equally variable summer with periods of rain and heat. Conditions improved markedly during the month of September. Yields of 30.50 hectoliters per hectare for the Corton-Charlemagne and 22 hectoliters per hectare for the Corton were the lowest ever recorded at the domaine with the exception of 2003. A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet, various American importers, including: Atlanta Wholesale Wines, Atlanta, GA; tel. (404) 696-9440; C’Est Vin, Arlington, VA; tel. (703) 243-3559, Scott Paul Wines, Oregon; tel. (503) 852-7300, Wines Unlimited, New Orleans, Louisiana; tel. (504) 897-0191
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
A wine of pure and ample breadth, the 2011 Corton-Charlemagne has really shut down over the last few months. Pear, almond and white peach notes emerge, but only with great reluctance. Today it is the wine's intense minerality and salinity that dominate. The 2010 is a big wine. Accordingly it will require a measure of patience in the cellar. This is one of the more inward, unexpressive bottles of the 2010 I have tasted, but its inner strength is apparent.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2010 Corton-Charlemagne is the epitome of elegance, finesse and refinement in white Burgundy. Readers will have a very, very hard time finding a wine with this much pure class and textural finesse. Smoke, flint, crushed rocks and citrus all flow through to the vibrant, pointed finish. Today, the 2010 is incredibly tight, and needs more time in bottle to soften. It is a dazzling wine endowed with laser-like focus and tons of purity.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Good pale yellow. Penetrating aromas of citrus peel, spices, metallic minerality and crushed rock. Tightly wound, gripping and deep, with outstanding concentration and clarity and a density of texture that reminded me of the 2005 here. A flavor of candied lime peel is already quite exhilarating but this wine's youthfully imploded character calls for at least seven or eight years of cellaring. Today, this is rather like a tighter version of the 2011, and even more closed than a bottle I rated 94 in Issue 164.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Pale yellow. Initially closed nose of lemon drop, anise and wet stone opened with air to show underripe pineapple, spices and wild herbs. Dense, thick, powerful and dry, with a strong vanillin oak element nicely buffered by an impression of saline extract. Began a bit warm but aeration brought strong, chewy flavors of chalk and lemon. Finishes austere, uncompromisingly dry and very long, with superb verve. All about soil and stone.
About the Producer
Located in Pernand-Vergelesses in the Cote de Beaune region of France, Domaine Bonneau du Martray has a thousand-year-old vineyard and is the only Burgundy winery to produce only Grand Cru wines. The vineyards of Château Matelay currently cover over 11 hectares, of which 9.5 hectares are planted for the production of Chardonnay from Corten-Charlemagne, while the remaining area of the vineyard with more fertile soils is devoted to Pinot Noir, a Corten wine of steadily improving quality. The average age of the vines in the vineyard is 45 years. The owner, Joan Charles, has also introduced asexual propagation in the vineyard to replace the tired vines. Château Martlet produces only two wines, a white wine from the Corten-Charriman vineyard and a red wine from the Corten-Charriman vineyard. The white Chardonnay from the Corten-Charriman vineyard is a rich, thick wine with intense ripe fruit flavours, the best of all Chardonnay whites. The Colten Charlemagne white Chardonnay from Château Matelay is the best of the best. Fortunately, despite the excellent quality of the white wines produced here, they are affordable and offer excellent value for money. These wines are the result of the gift of nature meeting the perseverance of generations.
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