„Das ganze Ding muss klingen!“ H. Dönnhoff
1986 Coulée de Serrant
First, normally I prefer wines at a younger stage despite the fact that I had some outstanding old wines like 1945 Grivelet, 1945 Clos des Papes, 1953 Keller etc. For me old wines are not per se fantastic because of the age. In spring I had 89 and 93 Coulée de Serrant and they were disappointing, BUT this ´86 is awesome.
Impressive fresh, clear and equipped with a stunning minerality&acidity. No sign of tiredness or any kind of oxidativ style, instead fresh like a mountain river. Quince, hay, walnuts, anise, tarte tatin and a never-ending length. Every sip is fascinating and long-lasting in the mouth. The wine-journalist Stephan Reinhardt is right, this wine is often quite unsteady in quality, genius or madness both is possible. Here we have genius…
Interesting Martin. Did you decant hours in advance and serve at room temperature? Curious as I have one btl of 2002 and I figure I got another 10-15 years of waiting so I might as well collect info to try and mitigate inconsistencies, and possibly expectations.
Just make sure you drink it on the night of a full moon (in Leo) and have the appropriate deer antlers hung in the southwest corner of the room…crystals are optional…
Sean,
I did excact the opposite, this means no decanting, served cold, BUT I used the best white-wine glass in the world “Universal” from ZALTO.
Perfect choice! Yesterday a friend told me that Mr. Joly does the same with `86 version, straight from the bottle.
On the other hand, I would agree that young versions of Coulée should be decanted many hours ahead and served not to cold.
Cheers,
Martin
Hello Martin,
I have heard others describe their experience with older vintages of this wine, and it has also been described in essence as “other-worldly.” Thanks for sharing with us.
Best,
V
Hi Veronica,
you mean the wines were dead?
As I said the performance of this wine is quite unsteady.
Take care,
Martin
BTW, there will be a Coulée de Serrant-Vertical together with Mr. Joly on 19 March in Bochum, Germany organised by Uwe Bende.
Contact: bende@weinforum-ruhrgebiet.de
Photos from the event this year, also organised by Uwe Bende together with David Schildknecht
http://www.culinariumcuriosum.com/2008/04/weinrallye-10-erster-beitrag-kultwein.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
we had the 1983 last month while dining in NYC. this was the oldest CdS i have had @ 25+. nose had a rancid quality but taste was full of citrus, fruit skins and nuts - real sensory overload kind of mid palate.