($95, Louis Latour USA):  Corton is the one Grand Cru for red wine in the Côte de Beaune.  A variety of vineyard names, such as Grèves or Clos du Roi, can be affixed after the name Corton.  Grancey, however, is not one of those names.  Rather, it’s the proprietary name that Domaine Louis Latour uses for their best red wine from Corton and is blended from five plots, Corton-Grèves, -Bressandes, -Chaumes, -Pougets, and -Perrières.  Latour is highly selective when considering what wine goes into this bottling.  They don’t make it every year, and even in years when they do, only the best lots are included in the blend; the remainder goes into a “second” wine.  The 2009 Corton Grancey is one of their best ever, rivaling their stellar 1985, which showed beautifully when I tasted it recently.  The 2009 had a supple core of plush dark fruit flavors interspersed with savory and subtle earthy elements.  With each sip, more flavors emerge.  Polished and refined, it is easy to taste–and enjoy–now, but will likely close down in a year or two before it re-emerges in a decade or so.  It’s hard to chose between this and Latour’s 2009 Corton Clos du Roi (also reviewed this week). 95 Michael Apstein Jul 6, 2011