Vintus

Corton Blanc, Grand Cru

Corton Blanc comes from the east side of Corton.  It is a rare wine, from the area of Corton Bressandes, which is mostly red wine territory.  There are also some white vineyards, “white” and not chardonnay because a little Pinot Blanc is found planted everywhere.  The Pinot Blanc gets riper than the Chardonnay, but the chardonnay stays firm like a Corton because of the limestone.  Thus the wine has both a crispness from the Chardonnay and sweetness/ripeness from the Pinot Blanc.

• 2009 Vintage

     There is more talk and interest about 2009 in Burgundy than in any vintage since 2005.  Mounir Saouma has warned us to be careful, however.  He loves this vintage, and in fact believes it is the greatest he has seen in his two decades in Burgundy.   He believes the fruit had everything from the start, and the wines from the beginning were healthy and beautifully balanced.  The major issue was to understand and respect the wines, and avoid working them, since they already had everything they needed in superb balance.  Overly working the wines, he believes, resulted in a loss of freshness and delicacy.  

   2009 is the first vintage at Lucien Le Moine that Mounir did not do any lees stirring whatsoever, and as usual he never racked the wines in their nearly two years in barrel.  He didn’t add sulfur until a few months before bottling, and yet his wines are still completely fresh; some whites he describes as even having a tint of green.  The Lucien Le Moine 2009s across the board are beautifully pure and focused, with the exquisite harmony of truly great wines.

  • "The 2009 Corton Blanc flows with mint, flowers, light honey and pears. It is a classy, understated wine that impresses for its balance and polish. Bright, floral notes reappear on the finish, adding brightness and lift. Anticipated maturity: 2014+." 92-94 Points Wine Advocate

  • "Light straw-yellow.  Mirabelle with hints of red berries on the nose.  Fat, rich and sweet; very full in the mouth, with well-integrated acidity and notes of crushed rock and menthol giving it good chewy definition.  Classic stony Corton aftertaste." 91-93 Points International Wine Cellar

  •  "This is clearly quite ripe because despite the presence of strong lactic acid and leesy aromas, the orchard fruit aromas are easy to detect. There is an opulence and succulence to the big-bodied, powerful and concentrated flavors that possess plenty of supporting extract as well as a firm, and sculpting, acid spine on the stony, long and palate drenching finish that delivers unusually good precision for the appellation. This is a borderline massive wine yet there is nothing ponderous about it; just don't expect much in the way of finesse or refinement." 91-94 Points Burghound

• 2008 Vintage

  There is a big difference in how most people in Burgundy see 2008 and how Lucien Le Moine sees its 2008s.  In a typically unique perspective, Mounir Saouma believes 2008 is a great vintage in Burgundy, one of the greatest of the decade.  2008 was the third in a series of historically normal vintage conditions.  Over the last hundred years, on average the rainiest month in Burgundy has been June and the driest month has been September; rain in the summer is common, occurring more than half the time.  The light, fine skin of Pinot Noir benefits from the freshness in the summer, needs it, and it helps the fat Chardonnay on its way to maturity as well.  The idea that only the “modern” vintage – hot and dry – can be great is a big issue for Mounir.

  In June 2008, within a given week rain always alternated with hot sunny periods.  The results were small bunches of grapes that were getting mature while keeping acidity, and slowly ripening.  Ultimately, there was a naturally low yield, an excellent sign, with 20% fewer grapes than a normal year, providing sweet fruit and high levels of tannin.  Very importantly, Mounir believes that in recent times Burgundy has lost its simplicity to some extent – when you tasted the grapes in 2008, there was no issue with rot.  Most people looked at their vineyards, were terrified of the rot and pressed very lightly to get clean juice, only did short macerations with not a lot of lees, didn’t stir, and then fined or filtered to bottle clean wines. 

  Lucien Le Moine did the opposite.  They pressed hard, bringing a lot of lees into the wine.  To balance the high acidity and some of the unripe bunch areas due to the cool weather, they topped with fine lees every ten days instead of topping with wine.  They did not stir, and so the lees would take a full week to fall to the bottom of the barrel, slowly imparting complexity and richness.  For about five years, Lucien Le Moine has been the last producer in Burgundy to bottle, and they were again with the 2008 vintage.  Malolactic Fermentation was not as late as usual because of the lees that was added, and finished in April/May instead of June/July.  Lucien Le Moine has never never acidified or de-acidified, so while some people de-acidified 2008, they didn’t touch the wines, and watched them over the summer become sweeter, fatter and more balanced, more attractive.  They started bottling around May 2010, and finished beginning of October 2010, after the harvest of 2010. 

  Looking at surrounding vintages, the 2005 is ageable, full of body, massive, tannic, with high acidity.  2006 has almost late harvest flavor, very deep, beautiful maturity, and nice acidity.   2007 is transparent, the perfect example of terroir in Burgundy, but will not age perhaps as long as 2006.  The 2008s are going to be the year for people who care about Burgundy.  They will be appreciated the next two-three years, for their very fresh fruit and balanced bodies.  Then they will sleep for a few years, but not like 2005s which are so big they will need a long time to awaken.  The 2008s will come back as classic wines of Burgundy, but not in a spicy, sous-bois manner; they will be traditional, but have a little bit of flashy fruit.  A very particular combination. 

  Lastly, the particularity of the Lucien Le Moine 2008s – a lot of wines are cloudy due to the lees; make sure to stand them up before decanting. 
   

  • "A restrained and backward nose is ripe, fresh and complex if not especially elegant, offering up notes of white peach and pear before sliding into delicious, full-bodied and tautly muscular flavors that culminate in a tangy and citrusy finish that delivers impressive persistence. A wine of power but not finesse." 90-93 Points Burghound

  • "Bright pale yellow. Shy aromas of yellow fruits, smoke, clove and wet stone. Dense, sweet and a touch exotic; nothing hard about this. The palate begins with sweet, almost exotic creme brulee, with the minerality and integrated acidity arriving later. Finishes with very good structure, breadth and length. This vineyard features 15% interplanted pinot gris, notes Rotem Brakin, and she believes that this element gives the wine its sweetness. But there's an impression of solid structure here as well." 91 Points International Wine Cellar

  • "This white starts out broad and powerful, with an underlying intensity and precision. The pear, apple, lemon, mineral and spice flavors become more sharply etched as this turns laserlike on the finish. Be patient. Best from 2014 through 2025." 94 Points Wine Spectator

• 2007 Vintage

  As Mounir Saouma says, “2007 saw a fresh summer – when we say fresh summer, we mean well-balanced rain and sunny days.   There were cool but not cold days, days with some rain and sun, but not exaggerated either way.  And you see in the wines there is beautiful acidity, but not as much as 2008, and nice sweetness, but not as much as 2006.” 

   

  This character of mid-way but not extreme in many areas resulted in wines that took a long time to reveal their nature.  “The wines started fruity and the tannins were firm, and slowly we started seeing a kind of melding between sweetness and acidity after the malolactic a year later; we started seeing the real character of the wines after 14 months.  

   

  This development of the vintage is the reason that 2007 was the latest bottling Lucien Le Moine has ever done, and why they were the last producer in all of Burgundy to bottle.  Typically Lucien Le Moine starts bottling in January or February; in 2007 they started in February, but the majority of bottling took place from May to September.  Mounir aged all his 2007 wines on their lees, without sulfur, and never racked.   

   

  Mounir compares 2007 and 2006 a lot; they will both be vintages that are approachable and will last, and their technical numbers are similar, but they are physically and aromatically in completely different worlds.  “2006 is more about sweetness and for some people a heavier character; 2007 is more about freshness.  We will enjoy 2007, but it doesn’t take anything from the aging. 

   

  The whites are beautifully clean, in some cases showing an exotic character up-front, but they also have wonderful complexity and substance; like the reds, and as a general characterization of the vintage, they are wines of tremendous freshness and profundity.

  • "Pale yellow. Reticent musky aromas of menthol, smoke and stone. Big, rich and sweet, with densely packed citrus and wet stone flavors dominating. Fairly expressive in the mid-palate but very dry and youthfully muscular on the finish. This is 13.6% alcohol but seems higher, perhaps due to the phenolic impression on the back end." 92+? Points International Wine Cellar

  • "A focused white, whose vibrant structure drives the lemon candy, peach, pastry, spice and stone flavors to a long conclusion.  On the elegant side, yet with intensity and a lingering lemon and mineral aftertaste." 92 Points Wine Spectator

  • "From Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc planted together in the “red belt” of that famous massif, the Le Moine 2007 Corton Blanc (of which there are three barrels – a huge amount by house standards!) smells of toasted almond, apple, anise, and acacia. As Saouma notes, this wine is more succulent, sweetly fruited, and forward than the typical Corton Charlemagne, but I don’t think one can apply that generalization to the Corton Charlemagnes of this particular vintage. Piquant nuttiness and suggestions of wet stone add counterpoint to a creamy palate impression this finishes with satisfying juiciness and flavor interest. I suspect it may well gain complexity and depth with few years in bottle and might well be a significant keeper." 91-92+ Points Wine Advocate

  • "This too is relatively leesy and hard to read aromatically but the rich, full and powerful broad-shouldered flavors have good concentration and really coat the palate with extract and while there is not much elegance or finesse to the bone dry finish, it does offer outstanding length. As the name suggests, this is more of a red wine made from chardonnay than a Corton-Charlemagne substitute." 89-92 Points Burghound

• 2006 Vintage

  Mounir Saouma’s approach to the 2006 vintage differed from many. His growers picked late, allowing the fine September weather to draw out the maturity of the grapes and compensate for a cool, wet August.  It was a risk, and not a typical vintage for Mounir, who usually harvests earlier than most, giving him the good acid levels he likes.  For the whites, Mounir feels very simply that 2006 was a great vintage.  The fruit needed plenty of time to develop in the vineyard, and it was important to stay calm and accept some of the botrytis that settled in; the results were complex, rich and exotic.

  • "Pure, spicy aromas of apple, fresh apricot, wild mint and talc. Sweet on entry, then extremely young and impressively intense, with a youthful bitterness to its tactile crushed stone flavor. For all its dustiness, this boasts a lovely light touch. Fascinating wine in the making." 91-94 Points International Wine Cellar