Chandon de Briailles Corton-Marechaudes Grand Cru 2019

Domaine Chandon de Briailles has been in the same family since 1834, farmed from Savigny-lès-Beaune by the siblings Claude and François de Nicolay: organic by 1998, biodynamic since 2005, with the Maréchaudes parcel worked by horse since 2012. The domaine holds 0.4 hectare of this grand cru on the lower slope of the hill of Corton, just below Corton-Bressandes, facing east-southeast on clay-limestone, its vines planted in the mid-1970s and around 1980. Grand cru fruit ferments largely whole-cluster in wooden vats, the proportion adjusted to the vintage, and the élevage runs against Corton convention: older barrels, never more than about 20 percent new, bottled unfined and unfiltered. The sunny 2019 season gave fully ripe fruit with the freshness of cool nights, on a site whose signature is minerality and elegant structure rather than mass. Corton that whispers where others shout.