Wine Ratings

wines

The 2020 Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatières 1er Cru has a straightforward bouquet: orchard fruit and Granny Smith apples with just a touch of petrichor. It’s not complex, but it has more typicité than some of its brethren (even if it needs to shake off some reduction that actually becomes more evident with aeration). The palate is well-balanced with plenty of concentration, real weight and heft in the mouth, citrus peel mixed with lanolin and a hint of fennel. Spicy towards the finish, this lingers long in the mouth. Power and tenderness combined. Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting.Vinous Media | 95 VMFresh in colour, a lifted perfumed floral nose, on the sharper side. Then some bacon fat as well as lemon balm. Not quite sure what to make of this. No faulting the intensity, but it is not quite harmonious today. Drink from 2025-2030. Tasted May 2024.Jasper Morris | 92 JM

The 2022 Corton-Charlemagne from Rapet is magnificent – serious, but not forbidding. The aromas range from lemon peel to passionfruit and green apple, adorned with hints of hawthorn and spice and underpinned by a firm, saline minerality. The wine is slow to open on the palate, with abundant extract, lively acidity, and an interminably long finish. The grapes are from two parcels of old vines (among some replanting), totalling three hectares. The vines span En Charlemagne (Pernand) and Le Charlemagne (Aloxe), where the Ladoix limestone breaks through the surface of the thin Pernand marls.Decanter | 95 DECAnother strong performance from Rapet, the 2022 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru unwinds in the glass with aromas of pear and crisp orchard fruit mingled with toasted nuts, white flowers and waxy citrus rind. Medium to full-bodied, layered and textural, with a glossy, concentrated profile, excellent underlying cut and a long, mineral finish, it’s a very good wine that still flies somewhat under the radar.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94+ RPThe 2022 Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru has a very terse nose. It opens with struck flint—quite a bit of reduction here—and a very light fish scale scent in the background that imparts complexity. The palate is well balanced, with a slightly creamy-textured opening, flavors of chamomile and lemon curd and a fine bead of acidity. Impressive substance comes through on the finish. Give this two to three years in bottle. Tasted at merchants’ 2022 Burgundy tastings in London.Vinous Media | 93 VM90% is from the Pernand. Side, a third old vines, a third 20 year old, a third 35 year old. And guess what, the youngest are in the worst condition. Some tressed, some worked by winch. Pale colour, a beautifully mineral nose, properly shows its terroir. The wine picks up speed further back on the palate, opening out very nicely. Very attractive. Drink from 2029-2037. Tasted: October 2023.Jasper Morris | 93-96 JMThis is aromatically pretty similar to the Sous Frétille but with more citrus and slightly more evident wood influence. On the palate there is more size and weight to the rich and generously proportioned larger-bodied flavors that display solid power on the youthfully austere, balanced and very dry finale. Like several of the wines the range, this needs better depth but that’s often the case with CC in its youth.Burghound | 92 BH

Complex smoky and nutty character, excellent concentration with a wonderful mineral acidity that keeps this very bright through the long, multilayered finish. No hint of anything exotic or overly ripe in spite of the ample depth.James Suckling | 96 JS

Powerful and refined at the same time, it’s an age-worthy wine that’s already tempting to drink. Generous apple, white peach and lime aromas give way to stony, flinty and tight flavors backed by nervy acidity that will need time to unravel. One of the truly great sites for chardonnay in the Cote d’Or, and this comes from 50-year-old vines. Best from 2028.James Suckling | 97 JSA rich, supple white, with great balance and expression, delivering peach, lemon, mineral and spice flavors allied to a bone-dry, chalky structure that reflects greater austerity on the finish for now. Shows superb harmony and length. Best from 2025 through 2036. 100 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 96 WSThe 2022 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru (Domaine) derives from vines in Languettes, a south-facing climat that produces a ripe style of wine. Delivering aromas of sweet yellow orchard fruit, confit citrus and buttery pastry, it’s medium to full-bodied, rich and ample, with a layered, seamless profile.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 92-94 RPFrom domaine fruit, picked on 26th August. 35% new wood from various forests. A deeper lemon yellow. Plenty of tension on the nose, with a breadth of apple fruit. A slight reductive quality before the oak takes over. A little youthful bitterness. I don’t find it showing at its best today but I suspect that there is more to this to emerge later. Drink from 2030-2038. Tasted Nov 2023.Jasper Morris | 92-96 JMThis is the first wine to display any appreciable reduction and in this case, it dominates the underlying fruit. More interesting are the generously proportioned larger-scaled flavors that brim with both dry extract and minerality while displaying impressive power on the compact, long, balanced and built-to-age finale. While this could be enjoyed on the younger side thanks to the excellent richness, there is so much upside development potential that it would be a shame to drink it too young.Burghound | 91-94 BH

Tasting note not provided | 96 DEC

The wonderful Corton-Charlemagne from Rapet offers pronounced apricot and quince fruit with a lemon-peel edge. The texture is rich and dense, yet balanced by a surprisingly crisp acidity for the vintage. The grapes from En Charlemagne, Chaumes et La Voierosse and Les Combes were picked on 11 September, right before the rain, and pressed as whole clusters before fermentation, mostly in 250-litre casks with a bit of foudre and one amphora. Ideally, I would age this at least 10 years and enjoy it over the next 40.Decanter Magazine | 96 DECRapet’s 2023 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru unfurls in the glass with aromas of peach and pear, mingled with white flowers, wet stones, crushed mint and hazelnut. Full-bodied, satiny and layered, it’s deep and concentrated, with racy acids and a seamless, complete profile. This vintage marks a step up in texture and mid-palate volume for Rapet, and it is well worth seeking out.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 95+ RPThe 2023 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru comes mainly from the lieu-dit of En Charlemagne and was matured in one-third new oak plus amphora and foudre. What a lovely bouquet! Delineated and fresh with hints of oyster shell and crushed stone, this exudes class. The palate is well balanced with fine weight, a keen line of acidity, hints of apricot and hazelnut and a poised but sustained finish. Bon vin!Vinous Media | 95 VMThe 2023 Corton-Charlemagne from Domaine Rapet Père et Fils is a beautiful young wine. It shows off superb depth and nascent complexity on the nose, soaring from the glass in a mix of pear, passion fruit, a gorgeous mosaic of limestone minerality, almond, white lilies, honeysuckle and vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and rock solid at the core, with a great foundation of Corton-Charlemagne minerality, bright acids, great focus and grip and a complex, impeccably balanced and very long finish. This is still a very young wine and I would try to not touch a bottle until it has had at least five or six years’ worth of cellaring. It should prove to be very long-lived. (Drink between 2030 - 2065)John Gilman | 95 JGThere are various ages of vine in the Rapet holding, with plantings in 1945 and 1950 plus 1980s and a 2018 plot. Mostly made in 350-litre barrels, plus one 12hl foudre, an egg, and a terracotta amphora. Lemon and lime, with some classic Charlemagne style fruit on the nose, a delicious lemon touch. The stones infuse the finish which is very persistent. Drink from 2030-2038. Tasted Oct 2024.Jasper Morris | 93-95 JMThis is very firmly reduced and while the reduction does not extend to the palate, it’s clear that the nose will need extended aeration. Much more interesting are the sappy, powerful and muscular flavors that also display evidence minerality on the long, compact and balanced finale. This is one of those wines that’s difficult to rate because while the reduction may dissipate with time, that is a supposition, not a guarantee.Burghound | 91 BH

The Maltroie red has a deep ruby colour and an admirable concentration of red and black fruit with hints of earth, smoke and violets. The texture is silky, but there is also depth and enough structure to draw this out to a lingering finish. The grapes are from 0.44ha of the Clos de la Maltroie, not to be confused with Clos du Château de la Maltroye.Decanter Magazine | 95 DECThe 2023 Chassagne-Montrachet Clos de la Maltroie 1er Cru is clean and precise on the nose, with touches of lemon rind and crushed stone. The palate is taut and fresh, with plenty of lime and citrus fruit and more stony notes developing on the finish. The 2023 is a level up from 2022.Vinous Media | 90-92 VMA more floral-suffused nose offers up vaguely exotic aromas of white peach, lychee and passion fruit along with just sliced citrus hints. I very much like the sense of underlying tension and caressing mouthfeel the barely middle weight flavors display before culminating in a balanced, long and agreeably dry finale. This too could use better depth but the development potential seems clear.Burghound | 90 BHNot much deeper in colour than the village wine but with significantly more fruit weight, still strawberry up front underpinned by a little raspberry, and here also the evidence of some new wood. One new barrel out of four. Drink from 2028-2032. Tasted Oct 2024.Jasper Morris | 89-92 JM

There is a ripe apple and apricot fruit aroma, lush buttery notes and a hint of spice. The texture is very rich in a classic Bâtard style. Winemaker Lucie Coutoux explained that they did a strict green harvest in July, cutting back to five to six bunches per vine, which pushed the ripeness forward, and thus, this was harvested first. She used her usual techniques: crush the grapes and slowly press them, running the must into barrel (25% new) with all of the lees. 2023 is the first vintage for Niellon since replanting the Bâtard-Montrachet in 2016. The results are spectacular.Decanter Magazine | 96 DECHere too there is a smoky note to the spicy and markedly floral-suffused nose of various white orchard fruit aromas, especially pear, along with a subtle if still easily perceptible wood nuance. Like several wines in the range, the medium weight flavors are not monsters of concentration but they do possess a sleek texture along with a lovely sense of underlying tension on the dry and balanced finale. While not quite what it used to be, it’s good to have an old friend back!Burghound | 93 BHIts back! Very young vines, needed a green harvest, in fact twice as the grapes compensated after the first. Took off half, so the vine could look after itself. 0.1190, 2273 for Chevalier. Had to pick first, with acidity declining. Pale colour, toasty nose. A lovely quality of fruit right away on the palate, less energy behind, or indeed length, only to be expected. The barrel toast remains, so look to a promising future. Drink from 2029-2034. Tasted Oct 2024.Jasper Morris | 93 JMThere are three barrels of the 2023 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru, whose vines were replanted in 2020 after being pulled up in 2015. Half the bunches were taken off in July before véraison to control vigor, and the pH is a little higher than other cuvées. There is some reduction on the nose, but you can feel the nascent energy. The palate is well-balanced with a richer, slightly more viscous texture than the Chevalier-Montrachet, powerful and long with a dash of spice on the finish. Of course, this is the opening chapter of the vineyard, and you can feel that it’s not full power, but it represents a promising return.Vinous Media | 90-92 VM

Chevalier-Montrachet 2023 from Domaine Michel Niellon is among the luminous successes of the vintage. The initial restraint on the nose gives way on the palate to aromas of ripe pear and quince with a hint of marzipan and fresh white flowers. The texture is generous, almost voluptuous, but there is a balance and elegance that hint at its noble origins. The grapes are from 0.22ha of 60-year-old vines at the base of the slope near the Leflaive parcel. Ideally, one would wait 10 years for this wine to show its full potential.Decanter Magazine | 96 DECOnce again there is a smoky whiff on the pretty, cooler and much more complex nose of wonderfully spicy pear and apple scents that are liberally laced with citrus and petrol nuances. The sleek, intense and more concentrated markedly mineral-driven flavors terminate in a chiseled, youthfully austere and bitter lemon-inflected finale that just goes on and on. This is a powerful but impeccably well-balanced Chevalier that should easily reward a decade plus of cellaring. In a word, terrific.Burghound | 95 BHPlanted in 1963 Lucie thinks. A bit degenerate, so lots of millerand. Picked at the start. Just as pale in colour, however the nose has more character showing the white limestone soil. Very linear, a classic Chevalier in the mouth, with warmth and energy to finish, but this is like licking the rock itself, more than eating the fruit. Quite tightly wound, so well worth longer keeping. Drink from 2030-2038. Tasted Oct 2024.Jasper Morris | 95 JMThe 2023 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru has an intense bouquet with crushed limestone, slightly more malic than Niellon’s Chassagnes. A touch of nuttiness develops with aeration. There is a pleasing strictness here. The palate is well-balanced with a fine bead of acidity, taut and fresh. There is a little CO2 in the barrel sample, yet the energy is palpable on the finish, and it feels long and sustained in the mouth.Vinous Media | 94-96 VM

Here too the lightly wooded nose displays a panoply of floral nuances that include rose petal, lilac and acacia blossom with additional notes of just grated zest, spice, and green apple. There is almost painful intensity to the slightly more concentrated and more mineral-driven flavors that conclude in a chiseled, youthfully austere and sneaky long finale that seems to go on and on. The Clos de la Mouchère is always excellent but in 2024, it is genuinely stunning.Burghound | 96 BHMid yellow. There is a little touch of patisserie on the nose, showing the additional breadth of fruit on Henri Boillot’s favourite vineyard. That’s what gives the gourmandise to the wine, says Henri. This seems to have all the aspects with an excellent mineral backbone holding the fruit together. Lime blossom and acacia he finds, from the adjacent trees which flower at the same time. Very fine long finish. Drink from 2030-2036. Tasted Oct 2025.Jasper Morris | 93-96 JM

There is enough wood to notice on the cool and airy aromas of white peach, Granny Smith apple and mineral reduction. The middle weight plus flavors are borderline painfully intense while seemingly built on a base of stone as the mouthfeel is like rolling tiny rocks around the palate on the massively long, balanced and youthfully austere finale. This overtly powerful and strikingly good bone-dry effort is markedly compact and a wine that I would recommend buying only if you have the patience to allow it at least a decade in a cool cellar. This could well be the Corton-Charlemagne of the vintage.Burghound | 97 BHFresh mid lemon. A fine concentration of fresh stony soil, with a little barrel toast. Much more linear of course, though with adequate flesh on the bones. Definite intensity. Drink from 2030-2036. Tasted Oct 2025.Jasper Morris | 93-95 JMThe 2024 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru had a hefty reduction on the nose that occluded the terroir profile. The palate is rounded, weighty and creamy in texture, though again, like Boillot’s other whites, they feel a little generic and reflect the house style rather than the individual terroirs.Vinous Media | 90 VM