2021 Domaine de la Vougeraie Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru "Le Charlemagne"

Professional Reviews

Notes

Domaine de la Vougeraie was created in 1999 when Jean-Claude Boisset gathered the best vineyards his family had bought over 35 years, starting with Gevrey-Chambertin Les Evocelles in 1964, into a single estate named for the family home in Vougeot. It runs about 40 hectares across more than 30 appellations, farmed biodynamically since 2001 under Sylvie Poillot, who took over the winemaking team when Pierre Vincent left for Domaine Leflaive after 2016. The reputation rests on Côte de Nuits grands crus, which is why the whites deserve a look: they get grand cru care and carry a Côte de Nuits address, so they sit outside the Puligny and Meursault price spiral. The flagship is Le Clos Blanc de Vougeot, a 2.3-hectare walled monopole beside the château that the monks of Cîteaux set aside for white grapes around 1110 and that has never grown anything else. It’s mostly Chardonnay with a little Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc, the only premier cru white in Vougeot. Behind it come the village Vougeot Clos du Prieuré blanc from another walled plot at the edge of the village, a Beaune blanc from Montée Rouge and La Maladière, and at the top a Corton-Charlemagne from the Le Charlemagne climat. The whites are pressed whole-cluster and raised in barrel with new wood matched to each plot rather than set by formula.