2018 Domaine Coche Dury Epenots Hospices de Beaune Pommard, Burgundy

Beautiful red intense color with darker hints. Aromatic nose of black fruits and hint of blond tobacco. Backbone with nice fresh and elegant expression. This single vineyard wine shows the racy character of Les Epenots terroir

The Abbey of Cîteaux was a pioneer cultivating Burgundy’s vineyards. Records show a donation in 1260 of a Pommard vineyard named “En Espeneaul” (today written “Epenots”). In homage to Cîteaux’s historic role, this Cuvée is named after the last cellarer of the Abbey, Dom Goblet, who worked until the Revolution. The Pinot Noir vines are over 50 years old, producing a subtly perfumed, harmonious wine.

Domaine Coche Dury follows traditional winemaking techniques but does a few things differently.

The winemaker’s great devotion and craftsmanship are the secret ingredients of the vinification process.

The fermentation happens in oak casks, and the cuvee stays on its lees for longer than usual. This results in slower wine oxidation and a fresh, crisp texture. The red wines are softened with egg whites.

When the fermentation is complete, the wine ages in oak barrels for 15-22 months, and it is always bottled unfiltered. New wood is used to enhance the aging potential of the wines and improve their taste.

The Hospices de Beaune was founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin as a hospital and refuge for the poor and needy. From 1471 onwards, vast tracts of vineyard land have been donated and bequeathed by grateful families and generous benefactors to the Hospices de Beaune. Much of the Hospices 61 hectares of vineyard land dotted throughout the Côtes de Nuits and the Côtes de Beaune, is classified Premier Cru and Grand Cru including sites in Clos de la Roche, Mazis-Chambertin and Corton. Since 1859, the wines made from the Hospices vineyard holdings have been sold in a charity auction held on the third Sunday of November every year. The entire proceeds of the auction go to the charitable and religious works of the old hospices and various health-care institutions in the region. Grapes harvested from the Hospice’s vines are made into 45 distinct cuvees (32 red and 13 white). These are sold 'en Primeur', just weeks after vintage and are shipped to the négociant-éleveur before the 15th of January of the following year. The wines are then matured, bottled and eventually distributed to the buyer, whose name typically appears on the label alongside that of the négociant-éleveur.

What is it that makes a domaine a cult? This is arguably the most sought-after internationally of all white burgundy domaines.

You might expect to be able to put a finger on why the wines are so good. Are the yields low? Not exceptionally. Is there some wizardry during the vinification or élevage? Sometimes I think it is just that Jean-François Coche-Dury has green fingers. His reds are beautiful, perfumed wines as well, though mostly from lesser appellations. They are destalked and only lightly extracted during a relatively short vinification. Since the first edition of this book however, even the prices for the red wines in the secondary market have raced away.

The founder of the domaine was Léon Coche in the 1920s followed by his son Georges. Another son, Julien, created Domaine Coche-Debord, while their sister Marthe’s daughter married Guy Roulot.George was succeeded by his son Jean-François, who developed Domaine Coche-Dury from the mid 1970s. Jean-François officially retired in 2010, though there is a clear continuity of style in the hands of his son Raphaël, who has been working alongside his father since he was fifteen.

There have been some changes in the detail since Raphaël took over: the vineyards are now all ploughed, and a pneumatic press has been ordered to work alongside the old mechanical Vaslin, which itself has been refined and updated.

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, no more than 25 per cent except for the very top wines. The whites are racked in July, when the barrels of a given cuvée are blended, then returned to cask for a second winter, being bottled cask by cask in April of their second year. There is now also a bottling line which is used for some wines though not necessarily the same ones each year.

Vineyards

It should be noted that Coche-Dury bottles labelled Meursault without designation of vineyard may come from differing vineyards. For example the cuvées of Narvaux, Chaumes and Vireuils are kept separate, though each importer will know which he has ordered and received.

The Meursault Rougeots is the single-vineyard Meursault most likely to be seen. Typically in youth there will be green tints to the fruit before it opens out onto a superbly generous palate which retains precision. It is this touch of green in the Coche wines – which are nonetheless properly ripe – which gives them the possibility of ageing so beautifully.

The Meursault 1ers crus Caillerets and Genevrières get passed over too easily in order to pay homage to the majestic Meursault Perrières, from two plots in the upper section of Perrières, one each in Perrières Dessus and Aux Perrières, but the bluest of blue chip wines is of course the Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne The original vines, which are rented on a farming agreement since 1986, are in Le Charlemagne, just below the cross. From 2012 further plots, two adjacent and one a little bit below on the same part of the slope, have swelled production. This wine is offered to the market later than the others.

The combination of a great vineyard with the Coche-Dury expertise has created a legendary wine in the marketplace. Words as ever will fall short, but the Corton-Charlemagne in youth has an exceptionally strict backbone which will take years to open out, and amazing persistence. Only right at the finish, when all has been concentration rather than detail, do the classic minerals of this vineyard appear. Certainly the 1999 and 2002, drunk at dinner in Hong Kong in 2018, are amongst the two greatest white Burgundies I have drunk.

Jasper Morris insideburgundy.com