This is a good wine, but it is perilously lacking in charm. I realise it is terribly young, but I do wonder whether this will become lovely with age.
Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru 2002, Domaine Chandon de Briailles
This is a very pale coloured Burgundy, but there is nothing wrong with that. The nose has a lot of fresh raspberry fruit and quite deep and concentrated. There is no interference here with huge amounts of new oak, it is a pure and focused nose. The fruit is very present on the palate, and it is quite dense despite being a light-bodied Grand Cru-style. It is certainly very long, and really quite mineral and complex, but the acidity is quite spiky. It lacks any real fat even with extended decanting and tends toward the extremely linear; it is not quite balanced. What it lacks quite noticeably is any real charm; it is not terribly fun to drink. I imagine a wine like this will retain its fruit but never really lose the high degree of focus which is currently preventing it from being lovely. I have the next-door vineyard from this producer that I shall re-visit in a decade with great interest. I must admit to preferring ‘lovely’, but I cannot deny that this is serious and it is by no means a bad drink.
