TN: Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne 2000 - 2012

Last night several of us got together to explore a vertical of Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne. A wonderful dinner by Christopher Grossman was provided at Atlas.

Wonderful pairings.

This is a wine you rarely get a chance to taste as a single bottle much less several vintages together.

A real education.


Pairing one
Pan Roasted Norwegian Halibut
Vidalia Spring Onions, English Peas, Morel Mushrooms, Soubise
2007- A mild note of TCA on the opening. The nose is subdued because of this. It does show the Coche-Dury complex flint type notes on the nose. The wine shows some of the high acidity of the year but it finishes with a great flourish. Starting to flesh out some complex spice. Even with the mild TCA this was quite nice.

2011- A reticent nose that takes over an hour to evolve. Finally the Coche-Dury flint type notes come out. A riper wine of power and big texture in the mouth. Intense. Oily. This one was still going at the end. Wished I had saved more to taste. Excellent!

Pairing two
Maine Lobster En Croute
fine herbs mousse, Bearnaise, Green Apple, Salsify
2001- Darker color. The nose is a complex mix of apple type notes and spice. The flint type notes signifying Coche-Dury were still there but in a complex package. The palate is fascinating. Apple fruits mixed with a complex spice. Mineral spine. The intensity here and finishing complexity is first rate. One of the best of the tasting.

2009- Monolithic wine that just never opened up. The nose is closed at this point. Hints of the Coche-Dury flint notes. The palate is oily and thick. The energy is low compared with the 2001.

Pairing three
Fresh Black Truffle and Fettuccini
Reggiano Parmesano, Preserved Burgundy Black Truffles, Buckwheat and Farm egg pastas

2003- A strange nose. There is something chemical here that is difficult to identify. No Coche-Dury flint here. Yellow color with apple notes throughout. Pleasant palate with a finish that just doesn’t take off. Not sure if this is representative but it was the least desirable wine of the tasting.

2006- Very clean but ripe fruit notes on the nose with Coche-Dury flint in the background. A beautiful balance to this wine. Zen type of balance. Amazing density to the midpalate. With a little more intensity of flavor this would have been a top wine of the night.


Paring four
Black Truffle Stuffed Galus Braun Chicken
Crown Roasted Breast, Crisped Leg Confit, Black Truffle Jus, Potato Puree, Roasted Chicken Jus

2004- Ahh. This nose is FIRST rate. A beautiful mix of golden fruits, spice and Coche-Dury flint. The palate is beautiful with intense golden spicy fruit and spreads out in the mouth. The finish is showing early complexity with a long satisfying aftertaste.

2008- Reticent nose that gives way to a gorgeous light golden fruit and flint mix with time. The palate here shows that special balance that great wines exhibit. With time this blossoms and morphs. Layers of complexity with time. Again, I should have left more of this but it was so darn good. Great today. Extraordinary in the future.

2012 - Rich intense light golden fruit nose with Coche-Dury flint notes. Engrossing. Rich mid palate that sucks you in with all the luscious primary fruit. Beautiful finish. This was extremely nice!

Paring five
Pan Roasted Rabbit Loin
Black Truffle Farce, Rabbit Confit and roasted mushroom Risolle, Roasted Sunchoke Puree, Sunchoke Fondant, Roasted Mushroom Jus

2005 – Golden color. More advanced fruit with some Coche –Dury flint. The palate is intense. Maybe the most intensely fruited wine of the night. Golden. Spicy. Complex. Long.

2010- Lighter color. Almost like water in some ways. Intense lighter fruit cloaked in Coche-Dury flint on the nose. The equilibrium here is what you find in the greatest wines on the planet. The finish is wonderful. To me this approaches perfection. Profound.


Pairing six
Degustation de fromage
Comte, Epoisses, Out of the ashes, Marcona Almond, Toasted Bread

2000- Corked

2002- Golden fruit with spice and flint of Coche-Dury on the nose. Engrossing. More apple type notes with spice on the palate. Fabulous intensity but not up to the very top level wines of the night.


It is hard to rank the top wines. I thought the 2010 was the very best to me. I loved the 2001 and 2004 for the expressive noses. I loved the 2008. An embarrassment of riches.

Thanks Steve Friend for including me on this journey. Thanks to Joel for helping me source a wine. The greatness of these wines cannot be overstated. Cheers!

Wonderful notes Don. I have some 2001 in the cellar. I need to get cracking! The 2010 is a perfect wine.

Awesome notes, Don. The greatest white wine I’ve ever drunk is 2009 Coche CC. It was a couple years ago, and it was beautifully open for business. Sounds like it’s shut down – but when I had it in Nov. 2015, it was like the 2010 as you describe here. Etched in memory. These are great wines.

Timely Don! SO glad to see how well the 04 and 10 showed, as a few of us are planning on having those in May. I’m giddy about just the two…having 13 in one sitting would be mind blowing! Any decanting advice?

Bravo once again!

Buzz. Thanks. We didn’t decant any of them. I think the 2011 and 2012 would have benefited.

Don, I have never liked Coche wines because of the “flint” aspect, which I’ve always found intrusive.

You obviously like it…as do many fans. To each his own…

Do you have any idea what causes this “flint” aspect.(Which I orignally thought was too much new oak, but don’t really know.)

I’ve never seen a satisfactory explanation. I assume he doesn’t throw flint powder or stones into the barrels or contrive his wines to seem like they were made with the water from Flint, Mi…

Thanks for the notes Don… Indeed a once in a lifetime tasting

Stuart. I have no idea how they get that note. Steen at Winehog calls it gun powder. To me it is more a flint rock note. Like two rocks struck to light a fire.

Very nice Don. I had a once in a lifetime tasting like this once when Herwig brought a bunch of Coche-Drurys from Europe. It was incredibly generous of him

Just wow, Don!! Awesome tasting.

Great tasting and great notes , thanks .
My favorite would be the 2010 , together with the 1996 I think the best wine he ever made . The 2002 and 2005 are closely behind , but I think both are on the brink of starting their decline , I would drink them over the next few years .
The 2001 was fantastic till a couple of years ago , also declining .
The 2003’ CC’s I tasted were always defective , I don’t know what happened there …
The 2004 and 2008 will be great wines , still very young today

I am still not sure if Rafael can make wines that are as good as his father . The typical “ Coche “ nose has disappeared with Rafael now making the wines , which I think is a shame . The wines are cleaner but not better ( still great though ) . I find this nose to be more prominent in some of the recent Henri Boillot wines ( like his Clos de la Mouchere ) .

Stuart always likes to mention he does not like the Coche wines and typical spicy nose. He and many others used to blame it on the new oak ( untill it was revealed Coche seldom uses new oak , except for his CC ) . It’s a discussion we had many times before ( we must be getting old ) .

That’s not my point, Herwig…I would never post just those feelings.

My question, many years after your generous tasting in Princeton, described by Paul, I write to see if anyone has an explanation,after all these years, of the “flint” signature of the Coche wines. I don’t consider it “spicy” or anything I’ve really ever found in a white Burgundy from anyone else.But,by Don’s notes…it’s in wines 20 years older than some we had that night…and I had during a visit in 1992. What is it from? I have no idea. But, it’s clearly a signature of a Coche wine, whether you like it or not (and that is almost irrelevant to my query.)

“Flint” is not a word I associate with any other producer or even region. More to Revolutionary War muskets. Is it that? Well, that’s the most common adjective for Coche wines, so…

FWIW, I did “blame it on” the high toast of the oak…jf used…but…again, I have no idea, even as of 2018. If,as you say, the typical Coche nose has disappeared…I guess we need to ask his son what he does differently…and what that “typical Coche nose” was due to…

Again, this has nothing to do with whether I liked the wines or not…I just found them highly stylized and personal, as everyone seems to have. This is not Stuart . But,seeking an answer to a long unanswered question. Happy Easter, Herwig.

Staurt… I am getting old.

Hope…I am evolving gracefully - Like Damoy Chambertin and CdB.

would love to know what Coche wines Stuart has had.

What an amazing dinner. Thanks for sharing.

I’ve only had the 09 and 05. Both times I was surprised by how elegant they were given the vintages. The 09 was served single blind in a flight of 8 or 9 other corton charlemagne. I remember saying, “I don’t know what wine that is but that’s beautiful,” moments prior to the reveal.

Great stuff Don. That '08 will probably be my wine of the year, sheer perfection.

You’re not wrong.

It is gorgeous.

Cheers!

The '10 was pretty damn good too, just maybe a bit less approachable ATM, but also built for greatness…

Herwig,

The '05 we had last month was really only entering it’s prime window, I would say would hold up for another 10 years without too much problems (but cellared by me from release though).

got a b of 96 knocking around somewhere. Any recent notes? BTW, 93 was for me one of the best ever Coche CCs.