2018 Corton Charlemagne
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Tasting notes
The 2018 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru displays good intensity on the nose of dried honey and peach skin, a little pithy compared to the more effervescent 2019. The palate is quite forward on the entry, offering notes of mandarin, mango and a touch of orange peel. Quite a "thick" and dense Corton-Charlemagne. My intuition is that this will not be as long-term as Roumier’s other vintages.
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Neal Martin
Neal Martin
More reviews and scores
The 2018 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru, which was picked around September 1, had already been bottled when I visited in mid-November. It has a lovely, almost Meursault-like bouquet featuring touches of praline and grilled hazelnut. The palate is quite rich on the entry, with tropical notes of passion fruit, guava and mango, counterbalanced by a fine thread of acidity. A powerful and rather uninhibited Corton-Charlemagne. Drink this over the next 15 years.
Bottled just before the harvest, the 2018 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru is the fourth vintage that Christophe Roumier has elected to seal with DIAM closures. Opening in the glass with notes of pear, toasted nuts, dried white flowers and a discreet application of oak, it's medium to full-bodied, fleshy and succulent, with an open-knit profile and a chalky finish. "I make white wine because we happen to have the vines," says Roumier, "but the parcel isn't ideally located, and I find the whole process of white wine vinification very mysterious. In red, it's the quality of the grapes that largely determines the outcome; with white wine, it's much more technical."
About the producer
Based in Chambolle-Musigny, the domaine was established by Georges Roumier in 1924. The domaine started to bottle their own wines in 1945.