We had the 10 Echo earlier this year and adored the wine. All you could want from young Chinon. A kaleidoscope of delight on day 2.
I once opened a 20 year old Beaune Cent Vignes with a loose cork. After a few hours, I smelled the wine from bottle and it was dead. I thought I’d pour out the wine from the neck instead of dumping it, and I’m glad I did because the wine underneath was gorgeous. It turned out to be a seminal Burgundy moment for me.
I think the '10 is finer, but '09 is a strong wine as well. It should be a fun comparison later down the road, similar to '09 & '10 Burgundy.
Cheers!
One of my ‘wow’ moments in wine came from trying an '89 Joguet Clos de la Dioterie a long while back. I was blown away. I could swear blinded I would have guessed a great growth Bordeaux from an excellent vintage. The '89’s have been on my radar ever since. Seems like a special vintage there.
I’m the outlier here, I had the '89 Clos de l’Olive last year and found disappointing and very un-1989 ish.
I’ve pretty much given up on buying Couly-Dutheil.
Markus - thanks, you reassure me, I’m not the only one to have noticed this! I’m going to try the 09 soon so I shall report back.
Cris - Lucky you - I’d love to try a Dioterie 89 - the problem is they sell at auction here for between 200 and 250 euros!
Dale - I quite understand, having had one or two bad ones myself.
Anyway, I decided to try a more recent Clos de l’Echo last night and opened a 2014:
I didn’t know what to expect and opened it with a certain amount of trepidation.
It was one of those wines where the nose tells you straight away that there’s nothing to worry about: fresh, crisp raspberry, with a hint of chalk.
In the mouth, the raspberry is really dominant, maybe a touch of blueberry, the blackcurrant only hitting in mid-palate. It’s fresh, crisp and the fruit is bright and crunchy. Still very young, obviously, but very promising. It’s slightly green, not at all overripe. The only doubt comes from the middle section, which is a little coarse and raspy at the top, but I think this will get better in time. But because of that, it got two yums rather than three, although this was good compared to the 2011 which got no yums at all!
I was impressed - it reminded me of the stellar 01 and 02. Of course, it’s infuriating that the style should change so much from one vintage to the next. Whereas the 2011 is like a Rolland frankenwine, this is like a Raffault Picasses or a Joguet - I would easily have believed this was a Chêne Vert.
I picked up a mag of 89 Couly-Dutheil Echo tonight at Winex. Have not tried this wine before but like my chances of this turning out well.
I’ve had cases between the 89 Madeleine, L’Olive and L’Echo. I was able to source it back maybe 6+ years ago pretty easily. The 1989 have offered so much pleasure. I’ve left notes in CT. Amazing qpr for the age.
Greg - you should have a winner there, especially from a magnum - hope you enjoy it!
Steve - I’ve always found your notes on these wines very interesting and informative - with the added bonus that you write with your actual name, so I don’t have to guess who it is!
This year’s Couly library release was a great one, since it included both 89s (Olive and Echo) plus Echo 90, so plenty of fun to come!