2003 Corton Charlemagne

Very pale color. Discreet nose offers underripe pineapple, baking spices, menthol and crushed stone. Very intensely flavored and tightly wound, with a penetrating minerality giving powerful spine to the grapefruit and pineapple flavors. Steely, gripping and unevolved. This is an infant today.

Big and savoury nose. A hint of almonds and lemon. Pretty intense and not at all sweet. Quite impressive, but workmanlike rather than ethereal. (JR)

Very pale, green-tinged color. Exotic aromas of lime, apple, coconut and oak char. Wonderfully superripe yet racy, with terrific verve. The juicy, penetrating flavors of lime, apple and minerals get the salivary glands pumping. A wine of superb class and thrust, and yet there's also major underlying fat for this grand cru. Finishes with palate-staining length and cut. The vines here run north-south, noted Hervet, and thus the fruit was not burned by the hot August sun.