2012 Domaine Coche-Dury, Meusault AC, White Burgundy, France.
Fantastically rare, wildly priced and insanely desired the Coche white Burgundies are the absolute best there is, it is always a special moment to try these elusive masterpieces, and for me this week was one of those wonderful occasions. Coche’s Corton-Charlemagne is maybe the most sought after white wine in the world, one of the elite, along with Domaine de la Romance-Conti’s Le Montrachet, these two stand alone as the top Chardonnay wines for collectors, these two regularly see auction prices over $3,000 per bottle, sometimes much more, and one cannot leave out Domaine Leflaive’s Batard-Montrachet, maybe my personal all time favorite Chardonnay. While it is hard to talk about a $350 bottle as a value or in fact post it as a wine of the day here, it is important to showcase these wines for the glorious experiences they are and let people know these do stand up to expectation and are sometimes worth every penny, and it my case, someone else’s penny. I consider myself lucky to have had a few opportunities to sample Coche-Dury, and I must thank for long suffering boss (at my day job) for digging into his personal stash for our holiday staff party and opening this glorious wine, plus all the other magical bottles as well. The 2012 vintage Cote de Beaune wines are going to be even more rare and expensive than ever, a great year marred by huge crop loss due to hail storms in the region, this tiny crop produced highly concentrated and powerful wines, and this exotic Coche Meursault is filled with intensity and is deeply layered with stunning liquid mineral and stony elements somehow balancing the shear force of fruit density and richness, this wine is truly spectacular even now, but it should not even begin to show it’s best until 2020 or so. The nose is pure terroir and varietal with white flowers, steely mineral and match stick leading the way with citrus, quince, kiwi and stone leading, before a core of apple and lemon curd come out with air, there is a mouthful of wet rocks, hints of clove, butterscotch, briny notes and salted toffee as well with lingering creme, lime and honeycomb. This is amazingly gorgeous wine, I can only hope I get a chance in 10 or 15 years to see it in it’s prime, but I think that might be too much to asked for. For those with the means or if you have a bit of play money burning a hole in your pocket, I say lucky you, get this wine and lock it away, drink from 2018 to 2028.
($350+ Est.) 94+ Points, grapelive
