We all know that bottles of wine are like people—it’s what’s inside that counts—but I am nevertheless a keen observer of wine labels. It’s amazing how often the label, good or bad, is a tipoff as to what the wine is like. This is one such instance: I look at the spare, subtly topographical label on this wine and I expect refinement, complexity, style…and I can confirm that, in this instance, the wine delivers just that.
Of course, they could have just scrawled “Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru,” “2014,” and “David Croix” on the side of the bottle with a Sharpie and I’d still buy as much as I could. Croix is one of Burgundy’s young stars, having recently joined Meursault’s fabled Domaine Roulot as winemaker while simultaneously running his own property in Beaune (now that is a serious ‘side hustle’). Croix’s 2014 Corton-Charlemagne is sourced from just a quarter-hectare of vines in the “En Charlemagne” subsection of the storied Grand Cru, and is thus produced in minuscule quantities. The fact that we have any to offer at all is miraculous, and if you want to add a blue-chip white with decades of aging potential to your cellar, this is one to snap up.
The Domaine des Croix was created in 2005 when a group of American investors purchased the former Domaine Duchet in Beaune and installed Croix at the helm. Croix had been ‘discovered’ many years earlier by Burgundy broker nonpareil Becky Wasserman, who tapped him to be the winemaker at the well-respected négociant Camille Giroud. He remained at Giroud until the end of 2016, in fact, while simultaneously whipping the 5.5 hectares of Duchet vineyard holdings—most of which are in Beaune proper—into shape, converting them to (non-certified) organic viticulture. Croix produces mostly red wines at his eponymous property, of which he’s completely in charge, with this tiny-production Corton-Charlemagne coming from two small parcels in the west-facing “En Charlemagne” portion of the cru; this is the prime white-grape territory on the Corton hill, a cooler microclimate that delivers intensely structured, mineral wines capable of long, slow maturation.
And, of course, no offer of a Corton-Charlemagne wine is complete without a recounting of the vineyard’s epic history. It takes its name from a former French emperor, who gifted this and other vineyards to the religious community of Saint-Andoche de Saulieu in the year 775. According to legend, it was once an all-Pinot Noir vineyard, from which the hard-partying Emperor Charlemagne enjoyed many a bottle—staining his white beard in the process. In an effort to clean up his beard, if not his act, the Emperor’s wife had the entire vineyard re-planted to Chardonnay. So we have her to thank for wines like this: concentrated, perfumed, long-lived whites that combine power and grace.
Fruit for this 2014 from David Croix was 100% destemmed, fermented on indigenous yeasts, and aged one year in mostly used French oak barrels. It is a classic straw-gold in the glass with hints of green at the rim, with a highly perfumed nose of yellow apple, pear, citrus blossoms, crushed chalk, wet stones and subtle oak spice. It is sinewy, tightly coiled, powerful wine, needing lots of air and agitation to coax out more aromas, and if you’re enjoying a bottle now decant it at least an hour before serving in large Burgundy stems. As always with a white of this magnitude, let its temperature climb above 50 degrees to fully realize its aromatic potential. No doubt this wine’s peak drinking years are still a few years away—lay this down with confidence for a decade-plus and expect it to really blossom around its 10th birthday. It is built for the long haul and for luxurious seafood preparations utilizing the best ingredients. The attached recipe should do nicely, but this wine will dress up anything—when you want the best of the best, this is a bottle to reach for. Cheers!
