2017 Domaine Rapet Pere et Fils Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru, Cote de Beaune, France 1.5L

With the 2017 Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru, Rapet has produced his finest white since 2014. The wine opens in the glass with a classy nose of ripe lemons, green apple, white flowers and crushed chalk, framed by subtle hints of oatmeal and beeswax. On the palate, it's full-bodied, deep and layered, with excellent concentration and broad shoulders, but also promising structural tension and reserve. The long, chalky finish is penetrating and intense. This is well worth seeking out.

The Rapet family can trace its roots in Pernand back to 1795, and they are both one of the largest landholders in Corton-Charlemagne, as well as one of its finest exponents, so it is a mystery why these wines aren't better known and better distributed. There's a long track record here, and I can extol the merits of the domaine's older wines from personal experience: the 1979 is among the best mature examples of Corton-Charlemagne I've tasted. Under Vincent Rapet's attentive eye, vinification is pretty classic, with the whites whole cluster pressed and fermented in barrels (some 20% of which are new), as well as a few concrete eggs for some cuvées that Rapet believes give a more tensile, fresher profile to the wine. The reds, which have improved in recent years, see a brief cold soak followed by some 15 days of maceration, maturing in around 30% new wood from carefully chosen sources including Chassin and Taransaud. In addition to the flagship white grand cru, there are plenty of wines for insiders here, above all the old vine Pernand Sous Frétille. In summation, this is a fine source that deserves more attention, especially in view of its very reasonable prices. William Kelley Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Note: 90% of the fruit comes from En Charlemagne in Pernand with the remainder from Le Charlemagne in Aloxe; the total holding is 3 ha

Producer note: The laconic and thoughtful Vincent Rapet directs this 20+ ha domaine that is split roughly 50/50 between the production of reds and whites though there are more appellations devoted to pinot. He described the 2017 growing season as "one that was mostly calm, warm and dry. In fact, two weeks or so before the harvest I was starting to notice some hydric stress in the vineyards with fruit that was beginning to wilt. Then we had a serendipitous storm that dropped around 22 mm of rain that really helped give the vines that last sip of water they needed to finish ripening the relatively abundant yields. And this was in spite of having dropped fruit before the véraison in a number of parcels and particularly in Corton. I began picking with the whites on the 30th of August and then commenced the reds on the 4th of September. The fruit was spotless and thus we had no sorting losses of significance, which also contributed to the excellent volumes. Yields as I mentioned were good as they averaged around 48 hl/ha in both colors. Maturities though were really very good with potential alcohols that came in between 12.4 to 13.5%. As to the wines, I would say that 2017 is a very good but not a great vintage in red but it's really good in white." Rapet is making some really lovely wines these days and both his reds and his whites are much improved over the last few vintages. I quite like most of his 2017 whites and the Corton-Charlemagne is especially good. Rapet noted that he bottled the 2017 whites in October 2018 under the Diam brand composite cork. (DC Flynt MW Selections, www.dcflyntmw.com, LA, USA; Domaine et Saveurs, www.ds-collection.com, France; Domaine Direct, www.domainedirect.co.uk and Laytons, www.laytons.co.uk both UK).

Tasting note: Here the nose is clean, elegant and pure with its combination of green apple, citrus, white flower and wet stone nuances. There is both outstanding volume and mid-palate density to the intensely mineral-driven large-scaled flavors that are at once caressing but muscular before concluding in a compact, serious and beautifully persistent finish. This clearly needs to develop more depth but with the impressive development potential and extended aging curve this appears to possess, the complexity should gradually arrive.