Recently, I tasted two bottles of 2006 white Burgundy: Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet from Domaine Ramonet and Les Enseignères from Coche-Dury.
The 2006 vintage posed considerable challenges for white Burgundy, characterized by heat and a notable presence of botrytis. Yet, this bottle of 2006 Ramonet Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet has emerged unscathed by oxidation, offering a compelling surprise. The bouquet unfolds with an opulent array of white flowers, while the palate, generous in texture, harmonizes richness with unexpected vibrancy, culminating in a finish that is both expansive and refined.
The bottle of Coche-Dury Les Enseignères provided a truly fascinating experience. The initial impression was marked by pronounced alcohol and hints of premature evolution. Yet, after three hours of aeration, a vibrant acidity emerged, and the advanced notes seemed to recede. Conventionally, once a wine exhibits signs of advancement, the trajectory is considered irreversible—yet here, decanting appeared to defy expectation. The interplay between oxygen and wine remains an enduring enigma.
2006 Burgundy provokes echoes of 14th century Italian Architects: We may have lost over half of the Peer Group to The Plague, but the rest are doing Phenomenal work .
On the interplay between an aged, initially observed-as-flawed white wine blossoming into something special? Well, there’s The Watch and there’s Observing the time. Anecdotally, some of us have had experiences with strange phenomena, but that’s different from a total analytical understanding.
Off the dome, I’m happy to tag some folks to see if we can get their thoughts on the development of that '06 Coche Les Enseigneres. @Jeremy_Holmes & @Brad_England & @Alex_Valdes are guys that come to mind on experiences with aged Coche. @Mike_Evans has a really good gift of explaining older whites, and a go-to expert on a lot of things, but especially aged Loire or Austrian whites. I could tag dozens of people, but those are a good start.
And @William_Kelley is our renowned expert, particularly in both palate detection & the ability to incorporate a dozen subjects into something cogent. He’s not always available, but maybe he’ll have the time to share something on aged Coche or aged White Burgundy in general.
On the one hand you have the complexity of redox chemistry, where some of the reactions are reversible and exist in a dynamic equilibrium; and on the other, you have the complexity of how we perceive aromas in the presence of other aromas. In this case, there’s likely also the variable of temperature, as the wine presumably warmed up over the time that you were following it. I have certainly witnessed wines do this, but whether it’s to do with the wine’s chemistry, or how we perceive aromas, or both, I’m not really sure.
My experience with 2006s from Coche (where they performed a rigorous sorting to limit the impact of botrytis) is that they mostly taste younger today than a decade ago (when they seemed fully mature). I think a perfect bottle would have showed pristinely from the beginning, so this example is likely an example of the tug-of-war between an inherently robust, reductively made white and oxygen ingress through the cork over time.
Indeed, our perception of various phenolic compounds can change at different stages. Even in such a difficult vintage, Coche-Dury can still produce wines of remarkable refinement.
Very interesting! I recall having the 2006 Meursault ~12 years ago, followed by the 2006 Puligny the next day. I was very, very underwhelmed. I felt both were flabby and a bit advanced. I turned down buying a bottle. More fool me :)!!!
Had more or less the same experience (I wouldn’t go as far as you, but definitely thought of 2006 as the weakest vintage of the decade for Coche) at more or less the same time. So I was all the more surprised when someone poured a great bottle for me recently.
Andrew–you are very diplomatic in that you mention hints of premature evolution, but never come right out and mention overt oxidation/premox. For me, the decade of the 2000’s includes way too many premoxed wines. But also includes a fair number of off wines that hinted at premox but never really had the sherried/waxy/baked apple premoxed character. A number of these wines turned into beauties with 2 hours of air, and in retrospect never ever were really oxidized. That never, ever has happened with one of the wines with the baked apple thing. Most of the odd wines were Dauvissat, but some white burg as well.
I’ve mostly quite buying white burg because of all of this, and recently, all of the Dauvissats that have been flawed have simply been premoxed, so my experience has been limited, but this “maybe oxidized, but probably not” category seems to have disappeared.
Don’t really know what caused/causes wines like this. I have always assumed they were reduced/the problem was reduction since oxidation should not improve with more oxygen. We all became very good at identifying which wines were truly oxidized, and which were not, and might blossom with an hour or two of air. (I’m sure there are a number of threads on all of this buried here from 5-10 years ago.)
William, perhaps somewhat off topic, but what aspects of Coche’s winemaking accounts for the distinctive aromas that are so often characteristic of their wines (and that I enjoyed back when they were accessible and affordable for me). Reductive winemaking, oak treatment, etc.
Obviously the rudiments are rather extractive pressing; retaining quite high levels of solids; and long élevage (18-20 months) on the lees in carefully chosen barrels; followed by very meticulous bottling with minimal dissolved oxygen.
Of course, there are probably a few other details (this is one of the subjects that I have spent the last 15 years thinking about)…
People always talk about this as if it’s some sort of innovative technique. But must oxidation is just what happens naturally if you don’t heavily sulfite or inert the press pan. It would be surprising if something so normal and widespread were to define one particular estate’s singular style.
A 2006 Ramonet Batard, a gift from Alan Weinberg, last night was in perfect shape. Light color for a 19 year old white, floral aromas with a bit of honey. Not as much of the usual reduction/spearmint that Ramonet has. I’d say drink this now and over the next couple years.
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