The 2016 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru has a lovely licorice-tinged bouquet with impressive intensity and fine delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with a fine line of acidity, quite harmonious in the mouth but just missing a touch of mineral tension toward the saline finish.

The 2015 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru has a more straightforward bouquet compared to the Montrachet, with citrus fruit, a touch of peach and pasty scents. The palate is balanced with peach and guava notes on the entry. This feels rich and waxy in texture with toffee-ish notes towards the easy-going finish. Not a bad Corton-Charlemagne, though I have tasted better in other vintages from this domaine.

The 2014 Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru, from vines on the east side of the hill, has a well defined, phenolic, beeswax and dried honey-scented bouquet that has a little more intensity than its peers. Picked on October 1, it has a little more richness and that comes through on the palate. Although it has a high level of malolactic, the acidity is not sharp and there is a lovely dab of lemongrass enlivening the long and tender finish. This is a well crafted, charming Corton-Charlemagne.

The 2013 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru was one of the last to be picked on October 11 (their parcel incidentally next to Lalou Bize-Leroys is east-facing and ripens later than others.) This has a very composed bouquet, nicely delineated, with as much mineralite as the Montrachet. The palate is nicely balanced with a crisp line of acidity. Good tension here in this Grand Cru, with touches of lemon zest and spice fanning out wonderfully on the saline finish. This stands shoulder to shoulder with the Montrachet.

Still in barrel when I last tasted it, the Prieur 2007 Corton-Charlemagne - grown in an eastern exposure just below woods, and too steep to work by tractor - represents the harvest's last picking. Formidably dense and palpably chalky, its combination of citrus and pit fruits with their pips and pits is relatively austere for the vintage, and the sense of enveloping new wood around this makes for a decidedly bitter-sweet personality. Like the other Prieur 2007s, this boasts creaminess of texture, but there is a certain youthful, woody, as well as mineral-starched stiffness to the finish for now. Sheer concentration, power, and penetration lead one to anticipate a wine that will be worth following for at least 8-10 years. The 2004, by the way, is currently sassy, yet dense, saline, and just beginning to show some intriguing secondary (including carnal and fungal) features. It is a truly great wine in the making that has me imagining white Burgundy as a crossing between Riesling and Pinot Noir! Oenologist Nadine Gublin did not begin harvesting the Prieur Chardonnay until September 10, finishing a week later. The wines (with the exception of the Montrachet) all weighed-in between 13-13.5% alcohol and none were chaptalized. Malo-lactic fermentations were slow, the wines were inexpressive early, hence Gublin elected to bottle them 2-4 months later than usual (using a new bottling system). As a result, I have only tasted the best of them as assembled in tank. A comparison of the 2004s side-by-side was fascinating, and among other things bore out Gublin's assertion that -the big difference between 2004 and 2007 was the presence of over-ripeness and of enormous heterogeneity of ripeness- in the former. After the completion of renovations that were ongoing when I visited, the whites in a gravity-flow facility will be vinified entirely separately from the reds, and subject to sophisticated air purification and temperature controls of both tanks and cellar. New tractors and personnel will be on hand from 2010 to assist a transition to organic viticulture. In all these respects, the idealism and ambition exhibited at this estate are formidable. Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700