2014 Maison Morey-Coffinet, Puligny-Montrachet “Corvée des Vignes” White Burgundy, France.
After sipping a classic Meursault for yesterday’s Wine of the Day, I was inspired to dig through my notes of great white Burgundies and remembered how much I like this gorgeous Puligny-Montrachet from Thibault Morey at Maison Morey-Coffinet that I have in my original notes that were sourced at a Martine’s Wines portfolio tasting. This mineral driven and exciting Puligny, somewhat of a sleeper in the lineup, really impressed me with its depth and complexity, this winery has in recent years become a favorite of mine, especially these Puligny bottlings, which are brilliant Chardonnys and in this day and age, real quality value offerings. The 2014 vintage is a great year to explore right now with the wines getting into a nice mature place, especially this Corvée des Vignes, which is displaying with absolute purity a fine palate of white peach, apple and racy lemony fruits along with an array of stony detail and classic hints of hazelnut, leesy toast, white flowers and clove spiciness as well as a soft oak presence. There is a lot to love here and I am in love with the textural mouth feel and its steely structure, this is really coming into its prime and it gains even more excitement with air and with a meal, I highly recommend checking these 2014s at this stage with their secondary flavors offering loads of drinking pleasure, reminding us that these white Burgundies are a thrill in the glass. The Morey-Coffinet domaine was established in the 1970s, founded by Thibault’s dad Michael Morey, and has always been a well regarded label with the wines taking off under the younger Morey, who joined the family winery in the late nineties and has brought this property into the limelight with his stylish wines.
The Domaine Morey-Coffinet has a stunning collection of Grand Crus, including Batard-Montrachet and Corton-Charlemagne as well as some awesome Premier Crus in Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet, along with a selection of quality village wines and special Lieu-Dits that, like this effort, make for a star studded set of whites to chose from, with this Puligny-Montrachet Corvee des Vignes being one to look for, especially for the price. Thibaut Morey is very precise and crafts his wines with methodical attention to detail, and with his whites from parcels like this one, carefully hand sorts all the grapes and ferments in barrel with this wine seeing a combination of classic barrique and larger French oak (350L) barrels. His Chassagne and Puligny wines are aged about a year in wood, which depending on what the vintage brings get about 30% new oak and then bottled unfined and unfiltered, all of which adds up to seriously delicious, opulent and graceful wines. I know these wines are limited and sometimes hard to find in the states, but I suggest tracking some down, in particular this yellow/gold Corvée des Vignes, as well as the Le Trezin, plus the Premier Crus, which are fantastic, but a touch more dear price wise. All of the estate or Domaine wines come from all organic and biodynamic vines that certainly add to the wine’s quality and energy to this Chassagne-Montrachet based winery’s series of white Burgundies, for which the Morey family is most famous for in the Cote de Beaune’s clay and limestone based soils. This 2014 was fabulous, so I’m curious to sample the 2017 and 2018s at sometime in the near future, which look to be even better from what I am told. This time of year, as I have mentioned a few times recently is a great time to pop corks on richly flavored white Burgundy, with Morey-Coffinet being an excellent choice, and enjoying them with soft cheeses, lobster and or roast poultry dishes.
($48 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive