2012 Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru Henri Boillot

A wine of focus and clarity, the 2012 Corton-Charlemagne is a fitting finale to this overview of 2012 whites. The flavors are bright and chiseled in this dazzling, energetic Corton, but also given an extra kick of volume by the intensity of the vintage. All the elements fall into place beautifully here. The 2012 is intense, yet retains all of its signatures. Henri Boillot, with his characteristic dry wit, adds there was no hail in this parcel in 2012, but no juice either. 2016+ .

(100% from Aloxe fruit). This is aromatically restrained to the point of being almost mute and only grudgingly displays notes of citrus peel, green apple, white flowers and wet stone. There is excellent verve and intensity to the detailed and mineral-inflected broad-shouldered flavors that culminate in a focused, complex and powerfully long finish that is markedly austere and saline. This superbly long effort will need plenty of time to unwind as it's presently very, very tight but it should handsomely repay extended cellaring. 2022+

Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2012 tasting in Beaune. The 2012 Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru from Henri Boillot has quite a powerful bouquet with touches of dried honey and yellow flowers, though you have to swerve around noticeable reduction. The palate has decent weight, quite forward in the mouth with bitter lemon and dried orange peel notes. The finish is missing finesse and poise at first but it recovers to a degree if not quite fulfilling all its ambition. Give it a couple more years to find its groove.

Pure aromas of lime, linden blossom, crushed stone and spearmint. Plush and fine-grained but also quite penetrating, offering lovely lift to the concentrated lemon, lime and stone flavors. Very young but already quite suave, this round, rich wine finishes very long, with a youthful metallic minerality. Boillot told me that this was his only chardonnay parcel untouched by hail in 2012--and the only one affected by hail in 2013.