Chandon de Briailles Corton Les Bressandes Grand Cru – 2020

“The 2020 Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru is broad and dramatic, bursting with aromas of raspberries, plums, warm spices, raw cocoa and loamy soil. Full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it’s rich and fleshy, with succulent acids and a deep core of fruit framed by youthfully chewy tannins. This will reward some bottle age.” 92-94+pts The Wine Advocate

“François de Nicolay and his team have turned out another fine vintage at this Savigny-lès-Beaune reference point. Beginning harvest on August 17th and picking only in the mornings, yields were modest, coming in at around 28 hectoliters per hectare in red. As I’ve written before, over the last decade, vinification has become more and more gentle, with no pumping during fermentation or élevage and no filtration before bottling. The wines’ tannins are correspondingly finer, and their fruit richer and more vibrant than was formerly the case. The grapes are seldom destemmed, and de Nicolay’s practice in recent years has been to begin fermentations with whole bunches without crushing, removing the fruit from the tanks after several days’ intracellular fermentation, destemming it and returning it to tank to complete its sugars—thus avoiding, he contends, contact between the young wine and the bitter, potassium-rich stems. In the cellar, percentages of new oak are minimal, and de Nicolay has been experimenting with some “sans souffre” bottlings: including, this year, his entire production of Corton Maréchaudes.” William Kelly, the Wine Advocate