Domaine Bonneau du Martray’s Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru 2016 is a 100% Chardonnay from the Corton hill in Burgundy, drawn from the Charlemagne climat, a west-facing swath that runs from the top to the bottom of the slope. The estate is known for its deep holdings on Corton, and in 2016 it had to contend with a frost- and mildew-hit year that cut yields sharply—reports cite cropping around 20 hl/ha, roughly half a normal production. The result is a wine shaped as much by concentration and structure as by overt fruit.

Critical response has been notably strong for a difficult vintage. Burghound’s review is an excellent one, with a 92–94 point assessment (often listed by retailers as 94). The critic emphasizes the wine’s scale and cut, calling it “intensely mineral-driven” with “broad-shouldered flavors” and “sneaky good length.” That balance—power without heaviness—is a recurring theme in top Corton-Charlemagne, and it’s presented here as a defining feature of the 2016.

Burghound also notes some youthful complexity and cellar evolution ahead. The nose shows “notes of wood and reduction,” a common early-stage profile for serious white Burgundy raised in barrel and released young. On the palate, the wine is “notably firm but not really austere,” suggesting a tightly wound structure rather than sharpness. The reviewer expects it to “age well over the mid-term,” while still being “accessible after as little as 5 years.”

Taken together, the picture is of a concentrated, mineral-first Corton-Charlemagne with firm architecture, strong length, and the kind of early barrel-and-reductive accents that should integrate with time. For collectors, it reads as a vintage that rewarded careful farming and patient drinking.