TASTING Corney & Barrow, London; February 2, 2023


2020 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru (49hl/ha; 1,530 dozen; 14% ABV)


The Domaine’s second vintage of this wine, made from 2.9ha (7.2 acres) leased from Domaine Bonneau du Martray in 2018. There are four parcels, two low on the Corton hillside, one in the middle, one very high up. Aubert de Villaine commented last year that the finished wine was a remarkable example of the synergy of blending different sites. The 2019 was a wonderful debut. The 2020 is perhaps even finer and certainly more in the style of traditional Corton-Charlemagne. Mid-gold; ripe, peachy, gently honeyed, lightly mineral, glass-filling, and persistent; an immediate sense of fullness on the palate, a generous concentration of dry yet sweetly ripe fruit, all beautifully defined by its markedly tensing acidity. This is long and taut and subtly Corton sinewy, the hill’s minerality pervading the fruit on a striking length of aftertaste. At this stage, there is the characteristic tightness of youth—indeed, were you to taste it blind, its great spine might put you in mind of a magnificent grand cru Chablis. Archetypal Corton-Charlemagne then, in its second rendition from the Domaine and in, perhaps, a more classical expression of the cru than the also- splendid, immediately gratifying 2019. Prodigious from the word go, but ideally leave eight years for magnified gratification. 2030–40+. | 97


2020 Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru Cuvée Duvault-Blochet (19hl/ha; 679 dozen; 13.5% ABV)


Deepish purple; black fruit dense to smell, mineral-marked, and with a touch of whole- bunch-fermentation herbal and white-pepper character, glass-filling for a premier cru; full, vital in acidity, very fine-textured in tannin, an elegant mid-weight in proportions. Long and sweet and slender, beautifully fresh, moderately complex, but long to taste and to finish, with a very attractive fruit and aroma presence on the aftertaste. Fine premier cru in scope and scale. Vosne finesse with immediate charm, and a wine that will be very gratifying in just a few years. 2026–36+. | 92


2020 Corton Grand Cru (25hl/ha; 454 dozen; average 2010–17: 413; highest since 2009: 707 in 2009; 13.5% ABV)


Dark purple; a ripe black-cherry core on the nose, finely mineral, with the merest hint of new oak muting its fruit projection, but packed and full of promise; a fairly rich constitution, contained by a vital acidity and framed by a very fine tannin. Intense in flavor, both sweet and vivid, long and close-grained to taste, with a gently sinewy Corton restraint, but juicy at its edges, and with excellent, gentle persistence. Lovely. Not the volume of the Vosne wines, but a taut, elegant, handsome bearing that will need a bit of time to relax, to blossom. 2030–40+. | 93


2020 Echézeaux Grand Cru (28hl/ha; 1,280 dozen; average 2010–17: 1,195; highest since 2009: 1,549 in 2009; 13.5% ABV)


Dark, pale-edged purple; soft, flattering, and subtle to smell, instantly seductive, very persistent in the glass, and with the noticeably defining “fruit-freshness,” even on the nose, that is a feature of the vintage; full, concentrated, lively in acidity, notably fine-grained in tannin. Sweet-cored in flavor, its black-cherry ripeness contained by a red-fruit vitality. Its proportions are mid-weight (that’s the year), and this is a long, linear, gracefully complex wine, with 2020’s gently bracing, refreshing sweetness—tonic! And with fine, light length to follow. Succulent by comparison with Corton. Beautiful Echézeaux; ideally, give it at least five years. 2028–40+. | 93+


2020 Grands Echézeaux Grand Cru (33.5hl/ha; 960 dozen; average 2010–17: 991; highest since 2009: 1,290 in 2017; 13.5% ABV)


Dark purple; rich yet restrained to smell, a subtle black fruit and a whole-bunch noble herbal character; denser if less immediate than the straight Echézeaux; concentrated, acid-vital, deep, and texturally refined in tannin, an excellent balance. Intense in flavor, a 2020-keen black fruit, not a hint of super-ripeness, none of the “flesh” of 2019, instead a prolonged, close-knit wine, very long in aftertaste. A quiet-spoken quality on the palate, asking to be considered, savored, set in the memory, beautifully restrained, moderate in scale but with no lack of intensity. Sweeter, juicier, longer, and more succulently complete than the Echézeaux itself. A very fine Grands Echézeaux indeed, in its fully ripe but tauter style. Salt it away for eight years or so. 2030–42+. | 94


2020 Romanée-St-Vivant Grand Cru (32hl/ha; 1,718 dozen; average 2010–17: 1,250; highest since 2009: 1,756 in 2014; 13.5% ABV)


Dark purple; to smell, this is tighter, more closed, more reluctant than the two Echézeauxs; immediately whole-bunch herbal to smell, but fragrantly black- and red-fruit ripe, too. Rich, this one (rich was an immediate impression on all the 2019s, not so on the first three 2020s here); concentrated, very 2020-brisk in its acidity, and here, too, superfine in its tannins. Sweet and keen and delicately juicy to taste, long across the palate, an effortlessly resonant mezzo forte performance, with a palate-coating fragrance filling out its subtle fruit. A wine of marked linearity and effortless grace, tinged with the characteristic limestone- suggesting minerality. Very complete, quietly spoken RSV, closing with a wonderfully perfumed aftertaste. Just as fine as its 2019, but in an utterly different way. Such a beautiful expression of Vosne, of 2020, and of Burgundy. You could enjoy it earlier, but I’d leave it a decade. 2032–45+. | 95


2020 Richebourg Grand Cru (32hl/ha; 992 dozen; average 2010–17: 848; highest since 2009: 1,311 in 2009; 13.5% ABV)


Dark red; touched, as they all are in youth, by the herbal and white pepper of whole-bunch


fermentation, but beyond that, here there is an immediate generosity to smell, a noticeable fruit wealth—if the RSV is defined by its fragrance, this is defined by its fruit. And on the palate, too, you can see why the tasting order of recent years (Richebourg before Romanée-St-Vivant) has been reversed: concentrated, 2020-bracing, its fine tannin sinews beautifully enveloped by richly sweet black and red fruit, long, energetic, and packed with matter for the year, but this, too, is wonderfully fragrant on its follow-through. Splendid Richebourg, a particularly classy, complete, well-defined expression of the cru. A handsomely muscular body filling a perfectly tailored, closely fitted suit? Drinkable earlier, but I’d also leave this 12 years, ideally. 2035–50+. | 95


2020 La Tâche Grand Cru (30hl/ha; 1,237 dozen; average 2010–17: 1,386; highest since 2009: 2,082 in 2017; 13.5% ABV)


Dark red; quite tight and whole-bunch herbal on the nose, relatively closed (the previous wines show, though, what this will be), a hintergound of mineral. Wonderfully ample in constitution in the context of the vintage, rich, vivid, very finely tannic, a really lovely balance. Deep in flavor—sweet and broad—succulent for 2020, but also mouthwateringly juicy in its defining acidity, a lavish fruit allied to great perfume, long and lithe and full of scent to finish. Fruit plus fragrance in an opulent display, sort of plush and 2020-perpendicular at once. Majestically contained, complete La Tâche. 2035–50+. | 97+


2020 Romanée-Conti Grand Cru (29hl/ha; 500 dozen; average 2010–17: 432; highest since 2009: 657 in 2014; 13.5% ABV)


Dark red; its teeming yet delicate scents have a glass-charging character of a quite different order. Close your eyes and you drift in a reverie of absorption drinking in its exquisitely nuanced black-cherry fruit and mineral impressions. It’s giddying, heady, exhilarating. The palate is typically 2020-quick, but this very fresh acidity is flatteringly cushioned by the depth and sweetness of its fruit, beautifully delineated, the balance of an immaculate strawberry, juicily sweet, lip-smacking in its sharpness, exalted by its particular fruit-fragrance. Teasing, exquisite. But all this as vinosity, of course. And as so often, Romanée-Conti is in a class and kind of its own within the group: less fat than La Tâche, less fruit-stacked than Richebourg, more tenacious, racily present, mouth-coating than either, with a sheer volume of perfume that is utterly singular. The 2020 is quintessential RC, in a classical register, astonishing in its freshness from this very warm, very dry year. Less rich, more diaphanous and discreet than the 2019, but every bit as ravishing. A wine to make you wonder. Extraordinary that a mouthful of wine can transport you in the way that this does. It would enrapture you tomorrow, as it has a privileged few today. But in a decade and a half, it will double your delight and much more. 2035–55+. | 99–100


How on earth does one calibrate all of this? An impossible calibration.


THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 79 | 2023 | 63


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