Couly-Dutheil: Tasting & Drinking
That Couly-Dutheil is one of the most prominent names in the Chinon appellation seems indisputable. I would also argue that, while Chinon geeks will expend a lot of energy chasing the very best wines from fruit grown on the Turonian limestones of the première côte, the Clos de l’Echo is also clearly in the premier league of Chinon lieux-dits. The front section in particular has an advantageous slope, the same Turonian terroir, and there may be some benefit from the urban Chinon mesoclimate. Couly-Dutheil have all they need to produce one of the most striking wines of the appellation.
And indeed, the wines of the Clos de l’Echo are indeed some of the most significant in the Chinon appellation. The Clos de l’Echo Crescendo offers excellent quality, although I understand those who seek out a leaner, perhaps greener and more overtly Ligérian style may find they are allergic to the lower yields, greater concentration, and the use of oak, in particular new oak. Accepting this, I still find the wine hugely convincing. I do have to ask whether or not the portfolio could not be better arranged to give a grand vin that represented the Clos de l’Echo per se, with élevage in oak, perhaps supported by a second wine, rather than an oak-free grand vin from which the super-oaked-super-cuvée Clos de l’Echo Crescendo has been wrested, but I am happy to admit that I find both wines, as they are today, attractive.
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