Bonneau du Martray Cortogne-Charlemagne 20 

Based on bottles tasted at the domaine but complemented by a few older vintages from my own cellar, this extensive vertical (1973 – 2020) only underlined those themes (pedigreed plots, altitude, expositions and soils). It also demonstrated that the new ownership’s investment is paying off: able and passionate people are at the helm, and they are not constrained by a lack of resources. The result, unsurprisingly, is qualitative progress… WILLIAM KELLEY, Wine Advocate

…The 2020 Corton-Charlemagne, bottled in May 2022, was revisited in bottle and, I would point out, is fantastic. BURGHOUND 

Based in nearby Pernand Vergelesses, this domaine is best known as Corton-Charlemagne specialist, making wines that capture the site’s minerality and lean, stoic grace. These wines need time, usually ten years, before they start really opening up. RAJ PARR, The Sommelier’s Atlas of Taste.  

2020 Vintage: The 2020 white Burgundies clearly number among the very best produced in the last two decades. Deep, concentrated and chiseled, they unite generosity of fruit and textural plenitude with structural tension and grip to compelling effect. WILLIAM KELLEY
 

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It was only time before one of Burgundy’s most undervalued Grand Cru’s made a bold move in price. It’s a large Grand Cru but when you own the prime sites within the historical heart and have a mighty fine viticultural and winemaking team with huge resources, then really the burden is on the winemaker not to stuff it up.

Bonneau du Martay are the masters of Corton Charlemagne. A storied estate, it traces its origins back to 1775 while King Charlemagne extolled the greatness of the hill of Corton a long long time ago. In 2017 it was bought by American billionaire Stan Kroenke – who also owns Screaming Eagle in Napa and a swathe of successful sporting teams. Kroenke led his NHL (2022), NFL (2022) and NBA (2023) teams all to Championships in the last few years. He knows how to spend money and get good people into his organisations.  I admit I was a little dubious about the new owner’s ability to carry on the charisma and nuance Jean-Charles le Bault de la Morinière had injected in his wines, but it’s fair to say they’ve taken the domaine to the next level in just six years – and they’re just at the beginning of their trajectory.

I’ve been lucky enough to visit the estate under the old regime in 2014 and again in 2020 with the change of guard. The first visit with Jean Charles was love at first sight as he generously opened bottles back to 1988. The second visit was very different, they explained they held 15 plots across the pedigreed lieux-dits of En Charlemagne and Le Charlemagne. They’d divided these into three tiers which they vinified separately and blended together – top, mid and lower.

The top plots located in En Charlemagne are on terres blanches (limestone dominant) facing west to northwest and ripen later, making more minerally, evocative and stimulating wines. The mid and bottom of the slope are within Le Charlemagne, facing west to southwest where the soils are laden with clay and iron producing a fuller and richer expression of chardonnay.  A sum of their parts, these are blended to make the true expression of this Grand Cru (GC) according to the vintage.

As William Kelley notes, ‘the domaine's extensive holdings, when vinified parcel by parcel, give Hautus and his team a broad palette of blending components to choose from, a rare luxury in Burgundy and one that they appear to be exploiting to the fullest.’

Lovers of Burgundy will know this is the only west-facing GC on the golden slope. It receives the morning sun then the afternoon is tempered by the cooling breath from the combes. In the warmer 2020 vintage and with the team’s ability to judiciously decide which barrels to use they decided on 35% En Charlemagne and 65% Le Charlemagne. Fruit that doesn’t make the cut is sold off – in 2018 they sold 20% of their fruit (this is a rarity in Burgundy!).

Another feather in the cap of Bonneau is they have leased some of their Corton Charlemagne vineyards to Domaine Romanee Conti - a huge stamp of approval from the holy grail makers of Burgundy. If you were able to find a bottle of their rare second release it would set you back $2600.  So, while the price of Bonneau has risen, just remember they’ve been working this land for close to 250 years, and the bottle price is about 1k less.

Kroenke is a passionate Burgundy mind and only the fifth owner of this sacrosanct domaine.  It’s a storied estate and it seems Kroenke understands his deep pockets affords him to employ a brilliant team in both the vineyard and cellar. Biodynamic farming has been in play for over a decade.

Exciting times are afoot at Bonneau, they’re bringing this historical estate steeped in history and exemplary sites into the modern day. Leasing some of the land to DRC will only shine the spotlight brighter onto this estate and Grand Cru. I also spied some wines under screw cap (la vache!) and a ceramic egg when I was there in 2020.

This release welcomes them into the grand arena of some of the most brilliant white Burgundies. They also have an excellent track record for aging.

Cheers

Gabrielle