Aromas of crisp orchard fruit, white flowers, hazelnuts and clear honey introduce Coche's 2021 Meursault Village, a medium to full-bodied, satiny and incisive wine with a pretty core of fruit girdled by tangy acids and chalky extract, concluding with a long, palate staining finish.
Raphaël Coche excelled in the frost-impacted 2016 vintage, so I wasn't really surprised when he pulled off the same feat in 2021, producing a range of electric, chiseled whites and perfumed, sensual reds. As I've written before, the last decade witnessed a stylistic evolution at Domaine Coche-Dury—although this is hardly news, as the changes have been underway for the better part of two decades. In Raphaël's words, the domaine now works with "less new oak, less bâtonnage and less heavy lees." The distinctively toasty, sometimes reductive signature that marked out the Coche-Dury wines of yesteryear is less pronounced. But, as Raphaël emphasizes, that has been the case for some time. "The last vintages marked by pronounced reduction were 1999 and 2007," he observes. "And I didn't initiate the move toward a purer, less stylized approach alone: my father and I agreed on the change of direction together." Some clients, Raphaël says, have complained, but his response is uncompromising. "They may want the vinification [techniques] in the glass, but I want to taste the terroir."
The fundamentals of Domaine Coche-Dury's singular style, it bears repeating, remain the same: attentive viticulture (now with somewhat higher hedging and seasonal cover crops); harvesting on the early side, but not prematurely; a rare aptitude—which seems to have been passed down from father to son—for knowing how hard to press and for how long; careful choice of barrels; and long, patient and meticulously supervised fermentations and élevage. The wines continue to be distinguished by their incisive acids, striking intensity and frequently appreciable presence of dry extract—the latter is something Raphaël argues can bring structure and freshness to wines from the warm vintages that Burgundy is witnessing more and more frequently.
There isn't a Coche formula, rather there is a Coche palate, for decisions are made by tasting. "When my grandfather used to say winemaking was an art, sometimes I wondered what he had been smoking, but more and more I agree—it's all a question of feeling," says Raphaël. Jean-François, I should add, is also very much a continuing presence at the domaine. "My father comes by every day and gives his opinion," Raphaël confirms.
On a recent visit to the domaine, I took the opportunity to discuss a few other developments with Raphaël. The first is that all the estate's labels now read simply "Coche-Dury," an acknowledgment that, for certain cuvées, Raphaël is prepared to purchase grapes to supplement his production. "If I don't want to have an accountant telling me what to do, I need to produce a certain number of bottles per year. In a year when crops are small, such as 2016 [and now, 2021], I would rather purchase some high-quality grapes than cut any corners in the cellar to improve cash flow," he explained with candor. "The day I'm not able to make my wines exactly the way I want to, to my own standards, is the day when I'll change professions," he emphasizes. In other words, a little négociant activity chez Coche-Dury—itself not without precedent—is about running a healthy and independent business.
The second is that Raphaël has acquired a custom bottling line. "I have been looking into it for a decade, but for a long time I wasn't satisfied with the available technology." Readers may remember that Coche-Dury has long been a holdout for bottling direct from the barrel, with a two-headed spigot known as a "chèvre à deux becs." "I really wanted to find a system that gave just as good a result as the chèvre," he continues, "which means bottling by gravity, with only a very small gradient between the bottle and the wine." After years of research and trials, Raphaël has finally found a system that meets his criteria. "I remain a partisan of the chèvre," he notes, "and two-thirds of the production is still bottled by hand that way." So, commentators who claim the domaine has entirely abandoned the old system are very much mistaken. "But the new system in some respects gives an even better result," he explains. "The barrels are assembled before bottling to make a homogenous blend, and the bottles are properly washed." The thoughtfulness with which Coche has approached this subject is typical of the attention to detail he brings to every aspect of the winemaking process.
