J F Coche Dury Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru 1986 750ml

Burghound.com/ Tasted: May 05, 2006
Sporting a wonderfully complex and only mildly exotic nose that reveals nuances of botrytis, sweet floral aromas and stone, this sweetness continues on to the delicious, intense and impressively vibrant and powerful flavors that have reached there apogee. The finish is solidly if not hugely long and the only nit here is that this is missing the immense depth of the finest vintages of what is often a truly monumental effort. In short, I certainly liked this but it's not a profound example.

The Domaine was established in the 1920s by Leon Coche. Some vineyard plots with established grapevines were purchased and Leon bottled some wine himself.The vineyard land was passed down to Leon's three children, with Georges Coche taking control of his share in 1964 and continuing to run the estate and purchase new vineyard land. Jean-Francois Coche took over from his father Georges, on his fathers retirement in 1973. Jean-Francois's wife has the surname Dury which was added to the name of the estate.
Jean-Francois Coche officially retired in 2010 but there will clearly be continuity of style in the hands of his son Raphael who has been working alongside his father since 2003. There have been some changes already in the detail: the vineyards are now all ploughed, and a pneumatic press has been ordered to work alongside the old mechanical Vaslin.
The wines are firmly crushed before pressing, which must surely be a factor in the Coche-Dury style, then fermented and matured in barrels using a relatively low percentage of new wood, not exceeding 25% except for the very top wines.

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