Couly-Dutheil, 2017 Update
Some you win (or should that be wine?), and some you lose. I tasted the wines reported on here with Arnaud Couly of Couly-Dutheil earlier this year, and I resolved to visit the domaine when out in Chinon later during 2017 (as I was for two weeks in June, briefly in July, and another couple of weeks in September, during the harvest). But while I found time to call in on various favourite domaines, including visits to Bernard Baudry and Domaine de la Noblaie in Chinon, as well as a few further afield, calling in on Yannick Amirault during the harvest, and also Château de Minière in nearby Bourgueil, I regret to say I didn’t get around to knocking on the door of Couly-Dutheil. This, along with one or two other visits I have planned in and around Chinon, will have to be carried over to 2018.
In the meantime, this short update on wines from 2015 and 2014, two fine vintages for the Chinon appellation, will hopefully carry me over until my next opportunity to visit this famed domaine comes along. I started here with a trio from 2015, including the 2015 Les Gravières, the 2015 La Closerie and the 2015 Domaine René Couly. The first two are very much entry-level wines, the former from alluvial soils, the less familiar La Closerie label from vines at the transition point between valley and côtes, and this latter wine was undoubtedly the stronger of the two. The Domaine René Couly, however, was a more convincing and structured cuvée, the whole package, and while I would drink the first two wines now this would really benefit from a year or two in the cellar.
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