Wine Advisor
Edouard Delaunay, Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru 2022
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2022 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru has a forward, dried-honey- and blackcurrant-leaf-scented bouquet that certainly needs more complexity and mineralité. The palate is pleasant enough, with honeyed fruit laced with pineapple and guava and moderate length, but it never convinces of its Grand Cru pedigree.
About the Producer
Laurent Delaunay is the fifth-generation descendant of a winemaker and wine merchant family, and he is currently reviving his family's history. The Delaunay family has its origins in the western part of France, and its history seems to have been intertwined with wine from the beginning. A document belonging to the family mentions Edme Delaunay, who was appointed as a sworn wine broker by royal decree in 1771. Old Edouard Delaunay and his brother Louis were wine merchants in Nantes and Angers. They had a supplier in Burgundy named Victor Carbillet de Bellecherre, based in the Côte de Nuits at Nuits-Saint-Georges. He had no children and proposed to sell his business to Old Edouard Delaunay, whose son Edouard was about to get married. In 1932, due to its reputation at the time, the largest estate entrusted the distribution of its famous wines, such as Domaine de la Romanée Conti and Liger-Belair family (La Romanée), to the Delaunay family. The house then moved to Dijon, located in Nuits-Saint-Georges, and established cellars and offices in Gevrey-Chambertin. In the early 1990s, after nearly a century of existence, the house had to be sold due to the impact of the changing pace of life and was gradually forgotten. In 2017, the founder's great-grandson, Laurent Delaunay, bought back the family business and has been committed to regaining its place in the core circle of Burgundy's prestigious estates through meticulous and precise winemaking and aging of high-quality wines from the best terroirs of Burgundy.
