Kongen av Meursault ....Coche Dury

Vinmøte Lars Ivar 21. mars 2013

Meursault 2010, Tesco

Primær, enkel, gir lite på nesa. Transparent, undermoden frukt og stram. Litt "thight" munnfølelse, Are var på Chablis, mens andre dro til Puligny. Enkel og grei vin, men ikke typisk Meursault. Men en hyggelig pris £ 20,99. 84 poeng.

 

Meursault 1cru Perriêres 1993, Maison Roche de Bellene

Fiskeslo og blåskjell i nesa. Mere gul i fargen og tydelig utviklet. Kiler på sidene i munnen og lite trøkk. Are mente endimensjonal. Noe kork, sitrus og brente fat. Vanskelig vin å vurdere. 82 poeng.

Nicolas Potel, took his first steps as winemaker in the family Estate in Volnay, Le Domaine de la Pousse d’Or. He established his own negoce operation in 1996 , followed by Maison Potel-Aviron in Beaujolais region in 2000 and his efforts culminated in his own  estate, Domaine de Bellene in 2005, with 15 ha of organically-farmed vines in Côte de Beaune.  In 2008, ... Read More after leaving the SAS Nicolas Potel company, Nicolas Potel launched a new, "Haute Couture"-style negociant business called "Maison Roche de Bellene" which focuses on offering the rare and fine cuvées.  The Bellene range encompasses wines from the Côte de Nuits, and has the widest selection of Grand Crus from Burgundy, as well as a number of prestige 1er Cru cuvées such as Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses, Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Les Combottes.  Recently , Nicolas Potel introduced a range of very rare older vintages, under the name "Collection Bellenum".  These exceptional wines, dating back from 1959 are the result of a strict selection of old vintages originating from the cellars of some of the most acclaimed wine producers in Burgundy.

Meursault Poruzots 2007, Francois Mikulski

Transparent, citrus, litt kort. Ganske kompleks, pen fedme, rik men fremdeles slank og god. Sammensatt vin, frisk munn med bra løft. Litt elde. Denne produsenten lager betydelig bedre viner etter hvert ! 91 poeng

Meursault 2010, Joseph Drouhin

Fat, spearmint på nesen. Enkel munn, følger ikke opp den ambisiøse nesen. Kraftig sak og mangler eleganse. Kim gjettet Leflaive Macon Verze. 88 poeng.

Meursault 2007, J. F. Coche-Dury

Tydelig klassisk hvit burgunder i nesa. Åpner seg etter hvert og tydelig en vin med høy kvalitet. 1cru ? Konsentrert, lang og rik munnfølelse. Snev av harpiks. Coche ? 1% mere alkohol enn de andre ? Litt røkt og brent, men samtidig surt og fullt av sjømineraler. Mye fat, bittert og kompleks. Viser at Coche Dury er veldig konsistent og leverer varene gang på gang. Fantastisk bra vin. 95 poeng.


Domaine was founded in 1920 by Jean-Francois Coche grandfather. Jean-Francois took over the domaine in the mid-1970s from his father, Georges. Jean-Francois Coche was in 1975 married to Odile Dury and this led to the formation of Coche-Dury domaine. Today he runs the domaine with his son Raphael, who has been involved in work at the domaine since 1999. 
Coche-Dury is by all standards one of the best producers of white Burgundy, a position he has occupied for more than 20 years. The most impressive is that he has done so without a large portfolio of Grand Cru vineyards. Coche-Dury has a rather modest production and maintains a very high quality – from AOC Bourgogne to the top of the range. Production approx. 4,200 cases annually.
Coche-Dury put great emphasis on work done in the vineyards, when he is asked about his fantastic succes. There a no secrets he says, just hard work in the vineyards. The vines are pruned fairly heavily, and he only use “green harvest” very rarely. They use no form of pesticides in wine production at Coche Dury, fields plowed and cultivated very carefully to maintain the ecological balance.
Vinificationen is fairly traditional, but with quite frequent battonage. Fermentation takes place on oak cask, and the proportion of new oak varies from year to year, but generally Coche-Dury uses quite a lot new oak. In some years they have used up to 50% new casks on the top wines. The wines are raised in barral for 15 to 22 months, and are bottled without filtration.

Domaine Coche-Dury is today almost 9 acres, of which approximately 6 acres Chardonnay, while the rest is Pinot Noir and Aligote.
The production of wine are scattered in a large number of vineyards, see the table below, and on most of these vineyards Coche-Dury have less than one hectare. The 4.25 ha Meursault village is spread over 5 to 6 parcels typically vinified and bottled separately. In reality there are no wine from the Domaine which is harvested on more than 1 ha of Vineyard, and therefore the quantities of all wines are quite limited.
As seen from the table the vines in several vineyards of very old, and this is perhaps one explanation for the extraordinary quality Coche achieve.

Vineyard:	Grape varieties	Vine age	Soil	Area
Bourgogne Blanc	Chardonney	1930, 1958, 1975	Clay & Limestone	1 ha
Meursault	Chardonney	varies	Clay & Limestone	4,25 ha
Meursault Les Rougeots	Chardonney	1940, 1962, 1973	Clay & Limestone	0,7 ha
Meursault Les Chevalieres	Chardonney	1958	Clay & Limestone	0,12 ha
Puligny Montrachet Les Enseigneresc	Chardonney	1930 – 1952	Clay & Limestone	0,5 ha
Meursault Perrieres 1er cru	Chardonney	1950, 1970, 2005	Limestone	0,5 ha
Meursault Caillerets 1er cru	Chardonney	1960	Limestone	0,33 ha
Meursault Genevrieres 1er cru	Chardonney	na	Limestone	na
Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru	Chardonney	1960	Clay & Limestone	0,33 ha
Bourgogne Rouge	Pinot Noir	1973-1980	Clay & Sand	0,75 ha
Monthelie Cote de Beaune Rouge	Pinot Noir	fra 1987	Clay & Limestone	0,25 ha
Meursault Cote de Beaune Rouge	Pinot Noir	1980	Clay & Limestone	0,12 ha
Auxey-Duresses Rouge	Pinot Noir	1982	Clay & Limestone	0,50 ha
Volnay 1er cru	Pinot Noir	1962, 1987	Clay & Limestone	0,33 ha

The most “common” wine from Coche-Dury is his generic Meursault, which is perhaps not quite as generic as one might expect from the table above. There are in total 7-8 different village Meursaults, all vinified and bottled separately.
Most of those are bottled without vineyard/plot information, but two of them, Chevalier and Rougeots, are sold with the vineyard mentioned on the label. So in reality we are 5 to 6 versions of his generic village Meursault that one may encounter when tasting / buying wine in different countries. Different vineyards/plots bottled as generic Meursault; 

• Les Narvaux
• Les Dessous Vireuils
• Les Vireuils dessus
• La Barre
• Chaumes (Clone 548 – a vieyard his son is renting)
• “Les Tetes-Cassese (seen in the 1986 vintage)”
• “Les Luchet (seen in the 1992 vintage)”

The generic Meursault comes from the plot Les Narvaux and this should be one of the heavier and fatter of his village wines. This cuvee should also be the one supplied to American importer.
Besides the village wines makes Jean-Francois Coche also makes three 1er crus Meursault Caillerets, Meursault Perriere and Meursault Genevriers. The first two have been made for many years, while Genevrieres was added to the domaine in 2003. In addition to the three Meursault 1er crus, he also makes Puligny-Montrachet Enseignères, and a legendary Corton-Charlemagne, which is nearly impossible to find – and cost a fortune.

Coche-Dury also make some fine red wines from Auxey-dures, Monthelie, Meursault, Pommard and Volnay, and an excellent Aligote.

Coche-Dury has almost legendary status among wine connoisseurs, and rightly so. His wines are something special, and he almost have the same status as Henri Jayer, who was quite unique in Vosne Romanee.

Coche-Dury are very expressive wines that really jumps from the glass. It is not subtle or for that matter aristocratic wines, no they are quite flamboyant wines of almost incredibly high quality.
The first thing you notice is the assertive bouquet of gun powder and hints of popcorn – which can be very distinctive when the wines are young. They also have quite a considerable note of new oak, which together with the various nuances of the chardonney grape gives a complex and challenging nose.
On the palete the wines has very fine textures and freshness that comes from both the soil and the fine acidity structure. The wines are never overripe, but retain their suppleness and finesse. There is a pronounced Coche style, but this does not prevent the individual vineyards terroir to shine through. They are terroir wines but have a quite distinctive style that characterizes all the wines from the domaine.

A large part of the explanation for the high quality is most likely found in the vineyards, where a thorough work combined with very old vines in several vineyards yield som special wines. He manages to make wines that are both fresh and resilient although the concentration is quite high, something very few manufacturers are able to match.
Coche-Dury are, of course, also very skilled in the cellar, but I think it is in the vineyards he makes the big difference, which is probably one of the reasons that nobody has been able to copy his style and qualities.