Domaine Odoul-Coquard my favourite emerging Burgundy producer

Odoul-Coquard is one of my favourite emerging producers in Burgundy.

First time I came across this domaine was just a couple of years ago when I was preparing for Morey St. Denis grand tasting. The idea was to show the best producers, the best climats and the best vintages. As easy as that.

That was a truly all-stars tasting with such grands as Domaine des Lambrays, Mommessin, Armand Rousseau, Georges Roumier and Ponsot just to name a few. Almost all wines had been collected, but I was still missing the wine from La Riotte 1er Cru climat. I was looking at either Hubert Lignier or Perrot-Minot both from home commune of Morey-Saint- Denis. Somehow, I couldn’t find any which would be adequately priced or had good vintage.

That is when I came across Domaine Odoul-Coquard. 4th generation family run small domaine located in MSD. I took a risk and got a bottle of their Clos La Riotte 2003. To cut the long story short, that was the discovery of the night. It was voted 4th best wine of the night, being the cheapest bottle of the tasting.

Since then I was collecting their wines and never been disappointed.

This time we compared 3 wines from MSD and G-Ch.
Started with village level 2010 Morey St. Denis Les Crais-Gillon (89+). Very good fully developed wine at its peak maturity now. Dark berries, well integrated tannins and long pleasant finish. So much textbook MSD. 60 years old vines with small berries.

2010 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Aux Combottes (94) was the WOT for me. Big wine of top 1er Cru level. With depth and breadth. Masculine with G-Ch character. Intense and very well structured.

This climat lies directly between Latricieres and Clos de La Roche on the same line with Chambertin. It is the microclimate which it should blame for not getting Grand Cru status. Berries don’t ripen as well as they do in neighboring GCs. Nevertheless, Aux Combottes wines are fantastic!

2011 Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Clos La Riotte (92+). Dark fruits, fine texture, elegant with touch of minerality on the palate.

Clos La Riotte is almost a monopole for Odoul- Coquard. They have the whole vineyard as metayeurs but from the commune, so 1/3 goes back to the village in bottle for fêtes, etc. The vines sit virtually on the rock almost touching Clos de la Roche. Wine aged 15–18 months in 50% new oak.

Thanks

New name to me; thanks, Stas.

Thanks. Any input on their work and vinification practices are always appreciated.

Stas,
Not sure why you are pushing so hard. I see the same recommendation on a Facebook group, another wine board and here. Sorry if I am reading too much into it, but could you please confirm that you have no connection to the winery.

I don’t really see his post as pushing hard. It’s not much different than many other glowing reviews on these boards. His Instagram posts don’t show any particular focus on O-Q. And his WineTalks.club site makes no mention of the winery at all (at least not that I found). I suppose he could have some connection, but I don’t see it.

For what it’s worth, I had a bottle of the 2005 O-Q Gevery-Chambertin back in 2012. Young, but showed well. It was somewhat rustic and burly, very deep fruit and marvelous structure, and developed very nicely in the glass. I was impressed. Of course, the vintage didn’t hurt!

Have been buying a small selection of their Chambolle, Gevrey & MSD 1er’s over the past 4 or 5 vintages along with their Charmes.
Not nit-picking OP, but pretty sure Sebastian took over from his father in 2009 and is now the 3rd generation making the wines.

Dear Mark,

To make it clear, I am not in wine trade and not the professional. I am the independent blogger and have no connection with ANY winemakers in this respect.
As for FB and Instagram distribution as well as some other boards, it is just the way to capture the wider audience.
I do so with all my posts and from my experience same blogs trigger very much different conversations at different media. I am happy to follow all of them.

All my blogs reflect my personal point of view which I by all means maintain very independent.

Hope that helps.

I’ve been following the domaine for a few years now, they have a booth each end of year at the “Vignerons Indépendants” Wine Fair in Paris (the largest public wine fair in France, over 1000 domaines there for 4 days), so I visit almost each year. Here’s my 2cts on the wines.

Pros:

• Nice people, a bit old fashioned, so YMMV. You might see them as rude if you don’t try to engage (esp. at a wine fair with huge attendance, people there just for the free ride, heat, etc.), but you can have a good chat with them (father and son), and they’ll take time to explain what they’re trying to do. They have good success at the fair and some cuvées are sold out pretty quickly.
• Though prices have increased over the last five years, but they are still in the entry range for the appelations, and good Q/P. I believe the Charmes 2016 was 60 or 65€ last December.
• Large range, some wines made in a “traditional” way, you’re almost sure to find something to match your tastes.

Cons:

• Not sure about the aging potential: I’ve had a Charmes 2010 not too long ago and was a bit disapointed. Maybe it was in between 2 phases, but it felt a bit old yet did not have the nice sous-bois aromas I look forward to. Another time, I believe it was for the 2012 vintage, I was with a friend looking to buy wines for his daughter birth year to drink in 20 years. At the booth that year (I guess 2014), they told my friend that the 1er crus he was going to buy were going to last 10 years at best. I was a bit surprised tbh. I plan on opening another Charmes 2010 pretty soon to check if it goes the same as the first one.
• I always go through the whole range (starting with 1er crus) because one cuvée might be very good one year but not that great the next year. For example I found the Chambolle village 2016 just great and wanted to open a bottle right when I came home, but last year I found it just meh. I think there might be quite some variation in how open the wines are at the fair in December, so a bit difficult to judge sometimes.
• Again I guess compared to other domaines, the wines are still a very good Q/P, but they have increased quite a bit. I bought some Charmes 2016 as well as other cuvées, but would not buy it at 80€. The wines are worth their premier or grand cru status imo, but past some price range I look elsewhere.

Alain

I thought Domaine O’Doul made nonalcoholic wines.

not only can we not have nice things here, it seems we don’t even want them.

I think the winery had a slightly different name (and certainly was from a different generation) but I visited there in 1984.

Thanks

I visited Odoul-Coquard with some friends in 2017, while a couple from Singapore joined us (as I believe that there might have been a stuff up with the planned time of their visit) and it was my first experience of their wines. Sebastien was a delight to meet: he clearly had a great deal of passion for the family domaine, infectious enthusiasm, quite the sense of humour, and was undoubtedly a very genuine and welcoming man.

We tasted through his 2015’s (which were virtually sold out at the time) and my friend’s eyes began to light up. We were clearly fortunate to have the 2015 vintage as our first experience with Sebastien’s wines: the village wines were super, his 1er Crus were superb, and the Charmes Chambertin just knocked our socks off.

At the end of the tasting, his parents (who had finished work for the day) came in to join us and have a glass of wine. There was clearly some of the same sense of mischief in Sebastien’s dad, with both he and Sebastien’s mother being friendly and down to earth. While we having a lovely chat, Sebastien’s dad scurried off and returned with a couple of wines from the previous vintage (he told us he was thirsty), so we were able to compare with our experiences with the '15’s. All in all a delightful family, and smart wines that are not ludicrously priced.