2019 Domaine Pinson Corton Grand Cru "Cuvée du Bourdon"

The 2019 Corton Grand Cru Cuvée du Bourdon is especially promising this year, delivering a complex bouquet of red berries, raw cocoa, rose petals and sweet soil tones. Medium to full-bodied, layered and lively, it's vibrant and concentrated, with powdery tannins and a saline finish. It's the usual blend of 60% Les Paulands, 20% Les Perrières and 20% Clos du Roi. Domaine Ponsot started picking on September 20, and winemaker Alexandre Abel reported yields some 35% to 40% below average, with alcohols in the 14s and healthy pHs at around 3.3. Yet while alcohols in 2019 were if anything higher than in 2018, the 2019 wines are more elegant, with livelier fruit tones and less overtly muscular structure. That's not a criticism of the 2018s, however, which we revisited from bottle, confirming that they are wines that will require patience: interestingly, the most put-together of the range was the Clos de la Roche, a cuvée that was bottled last, in July 2020, and which certainly seemed to have profited from the longer élevage. (WK)