When young, Corton-Charlemagne is pale gold in color with green highlights. As it ages, the color shifts towards yellow or amber. The bouquet, delicate in the extreme, features buttery notes of baked apple, citrus fruits, pineapple, lime, bracken, juniper, cinnamon, and flint. Honeyed notes are frequently present. The older vintages (25-30 years) reveal leather and truffle. Both the glass and the palate are filled with its powerful aromas. Corton-Charlemagne is an astonishing demonstration of what the Chardonnay grape is capable of in terms of richness, power, concentration, distinction and balance. Rarely do we see such a perfect synthesis between grape variety and “terroir.”

Variety : Chardonnay

Color : White

Appelation : Corton-Charlemagne

Maturation : This wine will keep a minimum of 10 years, and in great vintages will still be fresh after 50 years, if stored in good conditions.

Serving suggestions : Corton-Charlemagne achieves a perfect balance between its remarkable acidity and its rounded opulence. It therefore demands refined and delicate dishes which nonetheless possess aromatic power. The natural candidates would include fattened goose liver (foie gras), whose bitterness would be supported by the wine’s forceful minerality, as well as more conventional classics such as good-quality crustaceans (lobster, crawfish, crab) whose strong but delicate flesh harmonizes with the wine in a spectacular fashion. Poultry or veal in white sauces would also do the wine justice, as would blue cheeses. Serve between 12° and 14 °C.

Vinification : After pressing, the juice is cooled to 10°C and allowed to settle for 24 hours. The must is then put in small oak barrels – of which 50% are new -- by gravity for a long, slow, low-temperature fermentation. The lies are stirred every 10 days or so until the secondary (malolactic) fermentation is completed. The wine is matured for 18-20 months, then carefully racked off and assembled for bottling unfined and unfiltered.