The 2016 Corton Grand Cru comes from red clay soils that are just 80 centimeters deep before you hit the limestone bedrock. It has a finely tuned bouquet with cranberry, raspberry preserve and crushed strawberry scents, crushed roses developing with time. The palate is well balanced with a fine line of acidity, brisk and tensile from start to finish and then pulling back so as not to overdo the finish. This is a case of less is more in a wine and it is likely to surpass the 2015 Corton.

The 2015 Corton Grand Cru opens in the glass with notes of plum, candied peel and mossy forest floor, subtly framed by spicy new oak. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, supple and quite expansive, with fine but firm tannins and an open-knit, generous core of fruit, but just a touch warm and diffuse on the finish which depresses my score.

The 2013 Corton Grand Cru, which sees around 50% new oak and had been racked in September, has a touch of sur-maturité on the nose – wisps of fresh prune infusing the black fruit. The palate is sweet and confit with ripe tannins, compact at the moment, but the new oak imposes too much toward the finish. Shame, because otherwise this could have been a Corton with finesse. Perhaps it will resolve that with time? We will see.

This is fresh, with lovely cherry, raspberry and red currant flavors. The tannins are ripe and well-integrated, though this needs a few years to come together. Offers nice balance, with mineral and spice on the aftertaste. Best from 2013 through 2026. 300 cases imported. -BS

The Bouchard 2008 Le Corton offers especially saline and spicy accents to its deep red fruit and raw meat, sirloin juice-like flavors. Cedar, fresh ginger, white pepper, blond tobacco, and vanilla bean all make for a pungent aromatic and palate display, and a rich, almost velvety texture is reconciled with the sort of nearly electric vivacity and finishing resonance of which this vintage is so singularly and memorably capable. “The middle sector of the hillside gives the silkiness and the old vines backbone,” remarks Prost but the young vines and higher elevations, he goes on to explain aid the sense of vivacity. This should prove to be worth following for the better part of two decades. What’s more, it represents amazing value not only for a grand cru but more importantly for a red Burgundy this outstanding.Director-winemaker Philippe Prost made no attempt to minimize the challenges of 2008 and was careful to distinguish between its wind-borne concentration and genuinely ideal phenolic maturity (approached more nearly this year in white than red). He opined that the wide window afforded for relaxed picking despite the late calendar date was critical, since the levels of ripeness were so disparate from one site to another. That said, he showed me an outstanding collection of Pinots. Ironically, as he pointed out, ripeness was also disparate in one of the two earliest vintages on record, 2007, yet picking – while fitful – was anything but relaxed due to the pressure of rot. And here, too, Bouchard scored excellent successes. By means of, where necessary, “swapping lees” between barrels to inoculate stubborn lots, Prost says he was able to get all of his 2008s through malo-lactic conversion in timely fashion, which he considers especially important with Pinot. Bottling of the 2008 reds – with a few exceptions mentioned in my notes and due to have been bottled in April – took place in December and January, the same schedule adopted for their 2007s. I did not have an opportunity to taste nearly all of Bouchard’s vast collection from either vintage, and have in the text of my notes indicated a few from among their 2008s that I take to represent significant omissions. (I have not noted “Domaine” to distinguish those wines that are part of the Bouchard, except in cases where there is another otherwise eponymous wine.)Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY; tel. (212) 605-6767