2017 Domaine Marius Delarche Corton Renardes Grand Cru Vieilles Vignes Reserve 750 ml

Grand Cru Burgundy That Won’t Break the Bank

If we could drink Grand Cru Burgundy every day, we would. But rarely do the stars align to bring us Grand Cru bottlings that deliver the complexity their labels denote, at a price that makes them a possibility instead of a dream. 

But like a fiery meteor that comes along once in a decade, the luscious, deeply layered 2017 Domaine Delarche Corton Renardes Grand Cru from one of Pinot Noir's holy grail sites is here for a song—and ready to astound. 

The heady notes of dark cherry, crushed rock, and dried morels offered by this stunning Domaine Delarche Pinot Noir are derived from stately 50-year-old vines planted atop the famed hill of Corton. But unlike most Grand Cru Burgundy, which carries stratospheric price tags, Delarche’s meteoric 2017 offers a rare exception. 

Antonio Galloni summed up the abundant 2017 season in Burgundy with passion, calling the reds “very good, often excellent, and from time to time, bloody awesome.” We’d have to put this in the category of “bloody awesome,” not only for its overall brilliance and subtle layers of fresh cut tea leaves and white flowers, but the for the incredible value it offers in a landscape of extravagantly priced wines. 

In the late 1960s, when Philippe Delarche planted the Grand Cru parcel in Corton-Renardes responsible for today’s crimson Pinot Noir, the population of Pernand-Vergelesses was 253. Today it is 262. Suffice it to say that little has changed in this village, where Philippe’s son, Etienne, continues to craft his nostalgic wines. 

When Etienne took over the family estate from his father in 2007, he continued the tradition of producing hand-harvested and hand-crafted tiny production gems using organic and sustainable methods, yielding wines with a purity that rivals the top offerings from the hill. This Corton-Renardes was aged over 12 months in French oak barrels with roughly one-third new wood, adding baking spice and depth to the wine. The result is a Pinot Noir of striking elegance, fine delineation, and power, which highlights deep, earthy red fruit flavors matched by a mineral note from the limestone soils of the hill of Corton. 

The law of supply and demand simply doesn’t permit most Grand Cru Burgundy to land in the United States at under $100. Don’t let this delicious anomaly pass you by.