To celebrate my birthday , my friends and I got together to taste some delicious wines .
One flight included 3 Corton Charlemagnes from Coche Dury , with top scores from most professional wine witers. I was curious as my all time favorite ( the 2010 ) would be in the flight .
The first wine was full bodied , from a hot vintage , lacking a touch of minerality , like a top Californian wine , delicious and fully ready . 95/100 ( it turned out to be the 2005 )
The second wine was almost the opposite : light to medium bodied , lot’s of minerality and acidity , laser focused and quite young . On it’s way up . 97/100 ( that was the 2008 )
The third wine was a combination of the 2 previous ones : medium bodied , good fully integrated acidities , a touch of hay , a fabulous wine and easily the best of the 3 . This is the 2010 , imho the best wine Coche made since the 1990 . I’d give it 99/100 as perfection does not exist .
Btw , I also served another wine to my friends blind . I decanted it and served it immediately after . We all loved the wine , chalky and sweet with a touch of honey . Some guessed 1992 , others 1996 . We all agreed the wine is fully ready to drink and utterly delicious .
It turned out to be the 2021 Corton Charlemagne from DRC …… imho , if you have it , drink it . It’s not going to improve
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Interesting to read-if anyone asks me what the best wine I have ever drunk the first thing that always comes to mind is the 2008 Coche CC. This was I think seven years ago and I absolutely refuse to believe that it wasn’t the ideal moment to drink it.
My one encounter with the DRC, the 2019 vintage, was with a very nice wine that simply couldn’t hold candle to the Coche.
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@Herwig_Janssen Happy New Year! Thanks for the great notes! We have a lot of readers here who have probably never had Coche CC or DRC CC (count me in this camp). Can you please explain the difference in a wine like this to a Bourgone blanc or premier cru?
For me wines of this calibre have a density or weight that is just surreal. They have so much depth and complexity. To me they can be viscous.
I enjoy these wines when I have them but I will say a glass or two can be enough because of the weight. DRC Montrachet is a marvel that a grape can do that but I would not want to drink it every day.
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Happy Birthday Herwig! Interesting note on the 2010. Didn’t Raphael take over the wine making from his Dad in 2010?
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Happy new year too ! I think the 2010 was made by both Jean Francois and Raphael .
I would agree that drinking a bottle of grand cru can be a bit heavy , we also do not drink a bottle of Yquem with 2 people . But we were 10 tasters . Each enjoyed a nice glass… These wines are meant to be drunk with good friends …
Hey Tom , if you loved the wine , then it was an ideal moment . The 2008 is fantastic and I believe William K scored it a 100 points … But for my taste , the 2010 surpasses it , it’s more my style . ( I may be less sophisticated ) .
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I had 2010 last year, but haven’t had 2008 for a while… agree that it is pretty much the apotheosis of Coche CC in a cooler, more chiseled vintage, and while very fresh, a touch less “nervy” than the 2008 (a higher malic vintage).
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Happy Birthday, that sounds like a wonderful way to celebrate it. Did you enjoy these wines over dinner, if so what were they paired with?
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Happy birthday Herwig! What a way to celebrate! 
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Yes , those wines need a dinner setting , we went to a great restaurant in Antwerp ( which is becoming a culinary hotspot in Europe these days ).
We had plenty of other great wines that evening . My favorite was the La Mission Haut Brion 1959 out of a magnum , proving yet again that old wine ages best in that format . It was served next to a perfect fill Mission 1953 out of a bottle but the magnum gives you that extra freshness.
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Great to hear such fabulous wines are actually being drunk in our little country! Gelukkige verjaardag!
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