That was a truly all-stars tasting with such grands as Domaine des Lambrays, Mommessin, Armand Rousseau, Georges Roumier and Ponsot just to name a few. Almost all wines had been collected, but I was still missing the wine from La Riotte 1er Cru climat. I was looking at either Hubert Lignier or Perrot-Minot both from home commune of Morey-Saint- Denis. Somehow, I couldn’t find any which would be adequately priced or had good vintage.
That is when I came across Domaine Odoul-Coquard. 4th generation family run small domaine located in MSD. I took a risk and got a bottle of their Clos La Riotte 2003. To cut the long story short, that was the discovery of the night. It was voted 4th best wine of the night, being the cheapest bottle of the tasting.
Since then I was collecting their wines and never been disappointed.
This time we compared 3 wines from MSD and G-Ch.
Started with village level 🍷2010 Morey St. Denis Les Crais-Gillon (🏅89+). Very good fully developed wine at its peak maturity now. Dark berries, well integrated tannins and long pleasant finish. So much textbook MSD. 60 years old vines with small berries.
🍷2010 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Aux Combottes (🏅94) was the WOT for me. Big wine of top 1er Cru level. With depth and breadth. Masculine with G-Ch character. Intense and very well structured.
📍This climat lies directly between Latricieres and Clos de La Roche on the same line with Chambertin. It is the microclimate which it should blame for not getting Grand Cru status. Berries don’t ripen as well as they do in neighboring GCs. Nevertheless, Aux Combottes wines are fantastic!
🍷2011 Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Clos La Riotte (🏅92+). Dark fruits, fine texture, elegant with touch of minerality on the palate.
📍Clos La Riotte is almost a monopole for Odoul- Coquard. They have the whole vineyard as metayeurs but from the commune, so 1/3 goes back to the village in bottle for fêtes, etc. The vines sit virtually on the rock almost touching Clos de la Roche. Wine aged 15–18 months in 50% new oak.
