Drouhin’s 2007 Corton-Charlemagne smells bracingly of lemon zest, lavender, buddleia, salt spray and chalk dust; enlivens the palate with its mixture of fresh citrus, pungent, high-toned herbs, and brine; and finishes with liveliness, lift, and a combination of minerality, lift, and luscious primary fruit that constitute a persuasive advertisement for the virtues of its vintage. Here is a Corton-Charlemagne you can enjoy in its youth, though one certainly hopes and expects it to be worth following for at least a decade. When one considers that this wine – which the Drouhins, understandably, served after their Batard – costs well less than half as much as that wine, it can be no wonder that Burgundy seems a bit crazy to an “untrained” wine lover! Veronique Drouhin-Boss expressed enormous – and, in my view, justifiable – satisfaction with the 2007 crop of Drouhin whites, admitting that their sense of concentration might strike some observers as paradoxical given the vintage’s relatively high yields. Regular batonnage seems to have been a successful policy here, at least as judged by flattering textures and overt richness (almost atypically so for the vintage) short-term. For an account of Drouhin’s Chablis from 2007, consult the separate report on that region in this issue.Importer: Dreyfus-Ashby & Co., New York, NY; tel. (212) 818 0770