Perfect Tannins? TN: Dom. des Croix Corton-Grèves 2012 Grand Cru Red Burgundy

[John Trombley]

11-15-2017, 10:32 PM
11/3/2017 rated 92 points: 11/3/2017 rated 93 points: 11/3/2017 rated 92 points: 2012 Domaine des Croix Corton-Grèves (France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton Grand Cru); bouteille no. 1708, 13 pabv. Imported by Favorite Brands, LLC, Becky Wasserman and Co. Served with the last of my frozen Lehto's Pasty out of a dozen I brought back from July. (5 miles west of the Mackinac Bridge, St. Ignace, on US-2, made from rutabaga and parsnip and sliced potato and paper- thin-stacked beef sirloin). I doubt Grand Cru red Burgundy ever got down into the iron or copper mines with pasties but what a match for food and wine! Lehto's, still as grubby as it should be, now sells hot pasties for consumption on spot (very limited space). Or you can take your immediates out to the parking lot--I've never met with a traffic jam out there. If you're treated grufflly and grumpily by the (usuallly) single cook/waiter in the place--rejoice. You are being either recognized as a 'local' from your last trip, or mistaken for one, and are getting the genuine 'Leto's experience'. How well these burgundies go with grandma's comfort food, washed down liberally!

Fulliish color from Coravin to Le Taster to Riedel Red Burg. Blood red with some transparency and a touch of brown at the edges, all this relatively rich. Very wide Tudor arches and very few tears. Rich, searching aromas of highest-quality Oolong tea thrown off by the first pour. Fruit in nose showing restraint to a pleasant herbosity, but what a savory and juicy richness is there too. In addition, a punch of blueberry (ripe, sweet blueberry) and the end of the nasal experience. In the mouth, with the wine quite cold, there is a punch of bitter and alcohol-laden fruit with something like a twist of bitter lime zest, maybe kumquat, smoothing and integrating rapidly. A very clean, tart, savory, lengthy finish. that builds from a block of saturated tannin covered with fruit. A pleasure to drink young but what more is on hand for the patient! 93/100 RPP; now-2028.

Fulliish color from Coravin to Le Taster to Riedel Red Burg. Blood red with some transparency and a touch of brown at the edges, all this relatively rich. Very wide Tudor arches and very few tears. Rich, searching aromas of highest-quality Oolong tea thrown off by the first pour. Fruit in nose showing restraint to a pleasant herbosity, but what a savory and juicy richness is there too. In addition, a punch of blueberry (ripe, sweet blueberry) and the end of the nasal experience. In the mouth, with the wine quite cold, there is a punch of bitter and alcohol-laden fruit with something like a twist of bitter lime zest, maybe kumquat, smoothing and integrating rapidly. A very clean, tart, savory, lengthy finish. that builds from a block of saturated tannin covered with fruit. A pleasure to drink young but what more is on hand for the patient! 92/100 RPP; now-2028. This is a medium-textured, well-extracted wine from one of Beaune's new and upcoming producers, who I am betting will change the terroir-geography of the region around Beaune in a very few years.

Oh, how does Clos de Vougeout compare QPR-wise? $58 auction average price; $99 at full retail. The 2010 bottling (q.v.) may be less expensive and may be drinking just a hair better now. Why should I give away all my secrets? Just built that way, I guess. But one can certainly pay more for a less-attractive CdV.

Now on 11/15/2017, twelve days later with another Coravin draw with Riedel red burgundy glass, wild cherry and white pepper, light sweet beet greens, mild Dr. Pepper, and the tiniest bit of cloves, holding back on the nose for now. Typical grand cru lissome red burg entry texture, cherry, refreshing well-integrated citrus bitterness, and really à point tannins--neither too full, too big or coarse, nor under nor overripe. This is proof, enhanced by the perfect tannins, as I have always thought, that red burg is the most gulpable of all wines--lovely with back-of-the-stove kitchen soup, about as old as the Coravin piercing.

I can't say that I have a typical read on Corton or on the lieu-dit Grèves terroir, but this is much like a fine Beaune with a little extra layer and slightly fuller viscosity and that really beautiful tannin structure. May merit another point when the nose organizes and opens more, and that seems to be happening at about one and one-haf hours after pouring--bright, juicy, beginning to integrate, and with a minute-long neutral white pepper finish..