Nicolas Joly Clos de la Coulée de Serrant is the epitome of Chenin Blanc every wine enthusiast ought to try at least once in a lifetime.
Tasting Clos de la Coulée de Serrant is always a fascinating experience. This time I compared 2016 and 1999 vintages. I opened them two days prior to tasting.
Both wines manifest Chenin Blanc in pronounced escalating acidity.
2016 was a pale golden yellow color. It opened with aromas of peach compote and showed plenty of yellow fruits. 15% Alc. was well integrated. Bitter touch of botrytis and citrus finish.
1999 was amber gold. Inviting floral aromas, honey, crushed almonds and intoxicating rich bouquet leaving pleasant mouthfeel. Autumn wine with a signature botrytis accent. Full of grace in its early adulthood.
I have had very, very good and fair and awful Joly Clos de la Coulée de Serrant. My experiences lean toward disappointing; in my experience, inconsistency has been a hallmark. So I disagree with the premise that it “is the epitome of Chenin Blanc.” It’s not my favorite style of Chenin, often too big and/or oxidative for me, but it can be profound. I tend to have a personal preference for Chenin grown on limestone, like in certain Vouvray vineyards, and ripening at a lower potential alcohol.
I also believe the 2016 was made by his daughter, Virginie, who has largely been in charge for a few years.
I don’t like Chenin as much as you, but my experiences with these wines have been consistently weird, in that they’re strange in different ways every time. I have also found them oxidative, which I also don’t like, and when young chenin has so much oxidation I start to ask questions…
Have to pile on a bit here. I love Joly wines when they are right, but across the board they have an unacceptably high % of weird/defective bottles. I bought a case in December for Christmas gifts. Of the eight that have been opened, 2 were “dump it out” and another was rather badly oxidized. The other 5 apparently were delicious, which (weirdly) almost makes me more annoyed.
Massive level of inconsistency with these wines which makes it hard to pay the price which is around $100 but you can buy the 2018 Vieux Clos from K&L for $45 which is a great deal and won’t be as painful if it’s off.
I haven’t had one in a few years, but count me as another one who has been disappointed by the Joly wines. Lots of bottle variation, including a number of wines oxidized at a young age or just plain weird. Nowhere near the epitome of CB for me…much rather have Huet, Foreau, Lambert, or d’Epire.
Historically one of the greatest Chenin Blanc vineyards in the world. The wines are all over the board for me, too alcoholic, oxidative, tired/overworked(IMO), and generally inconsistent.
I had bottles from the late 80s through 1990 that were electric, so hard for me to feel it’s the site.
I never hear such widely divergent comments about any wine as this one. Greatest of all time, to undrinkable hot mess.
I have two bottles of the 2011, I have no idea whatsoever at what age to open them, on what occasion, what temperature, what amount of aeration. The last three CT notes scored it 89, 84 and 98.
The most worrisome thing is that many of the notes mention the alcohol sticking out excessively. I think it’s listed at 15% on the label.
I think Joly is on record recommending days of aeration. I have a 2010 I keep putting off opening. Acquired via the PLCB, so I have provenance doubling down on the inherent variation. Definitely opening on a fruit day.
Jacqueline Friedrich says Joly recommends carafing for two days.
I drank the 2002 in 2014. I had bought it at Zachy’s when Joly was pouring. I came to the conclusion after speaking with him for a while that he was a bit “off.” He told me his wine would not age properly if I had electrical wires in my cellar because the current caused magnetic fields that destroyed the aging process. I wanted to ask him to see the aluminum foil under his hat.
Of the same bottle that night, Salil wrote, “Didn’t enjoy this at all. This smelled really reductive and reeked of sulfur, and beneath was barely any fruit with sharp, disjointed acidity and very little in the way of pleasure. Got slightly better with air the reduction cleared to show some hay and floral notes, but not a fun wine at all.”
And one of our other diners wrote, “Had a stinky mineral funk on the nose at first, that took some time to blow off. Tasted double blind, this was dry with juicy acidity, and again mineral showing on the palate. Kept my sample of this all through the evening, and it was showing well with some air time. Slightly honeyed quality but I think this is aging well. Pretty wine. The last of the glass was a pleasure to drink, I think some of my table mates gave up on this one too quickly, but I don’t know if I’d pay the tariff for this one. Definitely get why this is loved by some, but at the price level there are other whites that I love more.”
Without jumping on Joly, 2011 was a very warm vintage in Europe. Lots of people had a hard time with balance in that vintage.
Jumping on Joly, outlier vintages and extraordinarily dogmatic winemakers don’t always go well together. Good captains believe their ship is the very best in the world, but have the good sense to bring in the sail if a storm comes. Fanatics don’t. I like and appreciate Biodynamics, but a big part of it is collected folk wisdom. I’ve never met an old farmer that would tell you to look at your almanac instead of looking outside.
Hopefully, for you, those wines are absolutely fantastic or at least quirky/interesting/do I like this or not cool experiences.
We always joke about the Joly lottery. Had a lot of these up until the 2003 vintage and got tired of the randomness, like everyone else. Tried the long decants and whathaveyou but if a bottle sucked, it tended to stay sucked. Did have 01 btg at Next a couple years ago and it was surprisingly good. They didn’t answer how many bottles they had to toss before they go to that night’s service though.
I’d quibble that CdS is the epitome of Chenin nor should even be thought about in those terms. Like Grillet isn’t the epitome of Viognier, it is a thing in itself. Unfortunately Joly’s “winemaking” is so idiosyncratic, I don’t think anyone has a good idea now what CdS is supposed be like outside of it being a Joly wine. Though CdS is not as radically distinct in terror as Grillet, we can maybe guess based on some neighbors and … what Joly does ain’t it.
There was a thread here some years ago, something along the lines of “which famous vineyard would you rather see in the hands of someone other than its current owner/winemaker”. If I remember correctly, many people said they were eager to see the CdlCdS being farmed by someone with somewhat less cosmic aspirations .
.