It was true last year, and the year before that, and many years going back in time, and it is true today: Etienne Delarche has no peers when it comes to combining blue-chip Burgundy from the famed Grand Cru hill of Corton with shockingly great prices. How he does it so consistently is a mystery, but what we do know is that Delarche’s choice parcels in this legendary site are adjacent to producers who charge many hundreds of dollars for their own bottlings. So, while Burgundy’s prices, allocations, and politics exist in a state of chaotic flux each year, Delarche’s scintillating and luxuriously sculpted Corton-Charlemagne remains a strong constant. We know of no other Grand Cru Côte de Beaune bottling with this quality/price ratio—the value this wine delivers is second to none. We do know that it always sells out extremely fast, so do not wait to grab your own little stash!
NOTE: We also have very limited amounts of Delarche’s top two Grand Cru Red Burgundies: Corton Rouge “Les Renardes” and “Le Corton” Rouge, both also from the über-classic and excellent 2021 vintage.
No Corton-Charlemagne offer is complete without a recounting of the vineyard’s epic history. It takes its name from a former Holy Roman Emperor, who gifted the vineyard 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 Charlemagne (Charles the Great) enjoyed many bottles—staining his white beard in the process. Seeking to clean up his beard, if not his act, the emperor’s wife had the vineyard re-planted to Chardonnay. Even without the fascinating folklore, it still ranks among the greatest Chardonnay sites in the world.
Etienne Delarche has one of the strongest top-to-bottom value lineups in all of Burgundy. Located in Pernand-Vergelesses and helmed by Etienne Delarche since 2008, they produce an assortment of reference-point whites and reds from Pernand’s best crus while also owning a few precious rows of vines in the “En Charlemagne” (western facing) and “Le Corton” (eastern facing) sections of Corton-Charlemagne. The soils are a grayish limestone marl and Delarche’s old-vine parcels reliably deliver Chardonnay of incredible power, energy, and longevity.
Delarche’s Charlemagne is crafted from hand-harvested, de-stemmed Chardonnay grapes that ferment on ambient yeasts in new French oak casks. After 14 months of maturation, it is bottled unfined and unfiltered. 2022 was a lovely, generous vintage that has winemakers in Burgundy swooning over the delectable combination of ripe fruit, muscular structure, and bright acidity. Of course this wine is extremely young by Grand Cru standards. If you want to open one soon, decant for at least 60 minutes. Right now it’s a lively yet tightly coiled ball of ripe yellow fruit, citrus zest, toasty oak, and iodized rock that glides across the palate with an impressive acid-to-weight ratio, and finishes with gobs of saline minerality. While there’s no lack of invitingly deep layers here, allowing this to rest another two plus years in bottle will bring immense joy to those who demand luxuriously silken textures in their Corton-Charlemagne bottlings. This is one of the best investments any Burgundy lover can make, so please grab what you can before it is gone!
