2017 Chandon de Briailles Corton-Maréchaudes Grand Cru, Cote de Beaune

CdB farms 1.45 hectares here. This is a shallow-soiled terroir with iron-rich clay soils and the Domaine’s holdings were planted in 1974 and 1979. This is Corton’s lowest-lying Grand Cru and offers up one of the Hill’s most seductive wines. It is a walled site, i.e., a genuine clos, located on the lower eastern slopes (so due east facing), under the Corton Les Bressandes. When young, Maréchaudes is always the brightest and fruitiest example of Chandon’s mighty trio of Corton (rouge) wines. The delicious 2017 is a little denser than typical and yet will still make for very good drinking now (but will of course certainly age well). Following a cold soak, the wine was fermented in old wood and concrete with 80% whole bunches and raised with 20% new oak.

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A ripe, cool and restrained nose grudgingly offers up fresh aromas of various red berries, spice, violet and again, plenty of sauvage elements. There is excellent volume to the succulent and velvet-textured big-bodied flavors that are at once caressing but powerful, all wrapped in a mildly austere but not rustic finale that possesses excellent depth and persistence. This firm and serious effort is very Corton-like and will need similar amounts of patience.