About Coche Dury
Coche-Dury has neither a website nor a tasting room, and its visitors’ book was closed many years ago. Around 4,000 cases of wine are produced here each year, and bottles of this wine are among the most expensive white wines in the world. The estate was founded in Meursault in the early 1920s by Léon Coche. His grandson, Jean-François, inherited it in 1972; three years later, he married Odile Dury, and they combined their surnames. Since 2010, the winery has been run by Raphaël Coche.
The vineyards cover an area of around ten and a half hectares, scattered across six communes in the form of small plots. Virtually none of them exceed one hectare, and almost none are classified as ‘grand cru’: there is just one leased plot in Corton-Charlemagne, from which the first harvest was taken in 1986, whilst the rest consists of Meursault vineyards and three Premier Cru plots on clay soils over limestone. Chardonnay is the predominant variety, with a small proportion of Aligoté and Pinot Noir in the less prestigious appellations.
In the cellar, a traditional method is employed. The grapes are thoroughly crushed before pressing; fermentation takes place in barrels using wild yeasts, followed by prolonged ageing on the lees with stirring, and bottling is carried out barrel by barrel the following spring. Jean-François used up to 50 per cent new oak; Raphaël has reduced this proportion to around a quarter.
