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Appellation · France

Aloxe-Corton

The village around the hill of Corton, which carries the Côte de Beaune’s only red Grand Cru and its greatest white.

Aloxe-Corton AOCcontinentalcool
What to expect in the glass

Reds that are firm, dark-fruited and structured for the Côte de Beaune. Corton-Charlemagne is powerful, mineral-toned dry Chardonnay built to age fifteen years or more.

About Aloxe-Corton

The hill of Corton is a domed outcrop at the northern end of the Côte de Beaune, and it is the exception to almost every rule about the sub-region. Corton is the Côte de Beaune’s only red Grand Cru; Corton-Charlemagne, on the upper south-west face, is one of the great white wine vineyards of the world.

The Grand Crus are shared between three communes, which is unusual, and Corton is by far the largest Grand Cru in Burgundy — large enough that generalising about it is unwise.

Village Aloxe-Corton red is firm, tannic and slow, closer in character to the Côte de Nuits than to the softer villages further south.

What the name means

Legal name
Aloxe-Corton AOC
Type
Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée / Protégée (AOC / AOP)
Set by
INAO
Regulates
Origin, plus grape varieties, maximum yields, minimum ageing.

The delimited area, permitted varieties, maximum yields, minimum alcohol, pruning and training methods, and in many cases minimum ageing. Administered by INAO.

Worth knowing

The Grand Crus Corton and Corton-Charlemagne occupy the hill above and are separate appellations shared with the neighbouring communes of Pernand-Vergelesses and Ladoix-Serrigny.

Grapes

Wines from here

red

Red Burgundy

Pinot Noir at its most perfumed and site-specific: pale, silky, high in acid, and the reference point for the variety worldwide.

white

White Burgundy

Barrel-fermented Chardonnay from the Côte de Beaune and Mâconnais — the model every serious oaked Chardonnay in the world is measured against.

Rules worth knowing

Confirmed in the EU register

Aloxe-Corton is registered as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), file number PDO-FR-A0932, protected at EU level since 1973.

Article 107 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013

Only the rules that change what to expect in the glass or on the label. WineHQ does not reproduce production specifications, and each entry carries the date it was last checked because appellation rules change.

The designation is confirmed above. WineHQ has not read this appellation’s production specification, so it publishes no yields, ageing minima or permitted-variety lists for it — those come from the document linked above, not from a summary of it.

What to eat, and how to serve it

Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.

Red Burgundy

Serve at 14–16°C (cellar cool).

Try with fillet steak, mushroom pasta or steak with béarnaise.

White Burgundy

Serve at 10–13°C (lightly chilled).

Try with salmon in a cream sauce, halibut or scallops.

Where to go next

Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.

  • Beaune — The walled town at the centre of the Burgundy trade, and a large village appellation with forty-two Premier Crus and no Grand Cru.
  • Savigny-lès-Beaune — A large village in a side valley north of Beaune, and one of the better-value red appellations on the Côte d’Or.
  • Nuits-Saint-Georges — The commercial town that gave the Côte de Nuits its name, with forty-one Premier Crus and no Grand Cru at all.

Sources

Sources consulted