Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

It was a 5th-generation Louis Latour who, after phylloxera devastated the limestone summit of Corton in the 1890s, made the deliberate decision to replant with Chardonnay rather than restore Aligoté — an act of transgression that effectively authored the Corton-Charlemagne AOC as it exists today. The house now holds 10.5 hectares across five named lieux-dits: Le Charlemagne, En Charlemagne, Languettes, Pougets, and Renardes, all on the south and south-east-facing limestone-rich soils at the hill's crown, where thin topsoil over fractured limestone forces deep root penetration and concentrates mineral tension in the must.

Grapes are crushed before pressing, fermentation begins in stainless steel without cold settling, then the must is transferred hot into 228-litre pièces of 100% new French oak — staves air-dried 24–36 months and toasted light-long (45 minutes) at the house's own cooperage — to complete both alcoholic and malolactic fermentation. Critically, no lees-stirring is practised, a deliberate choice that preserves primary limestone minerality rather than building autolytic creaminess. The wine is racked to stainless steel in May–June, settled, and bottled December–February with bentonite fining only.

The result is structurally unlike most Côte de Beaune whites: the full new-oak regime without bâtonnage produces a wine that is simultaneously toasty and taut rather than broad and buttery. The 2018 vintage — named Wine Spectator Top 10 Wine of 2021 and the fifth consecutive fine white Burgundy harvest — delivers outstanding volume-to-freshness balance, approachable young yet built for the medium term.