Coquard Loison-Fleurot Echézeaux 2016

Reviews

94-96NM

"The 2016 Echézeaux Grand Cru comes from 1.33 hectares of vines including Les Treux, which Thomas normally bottles as a separate cuvée. Matured in 50% new oak, it offers vibrant brambly red and black fruit on the nose, beautifully delineated with the oak seamlessly embroidered into the fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, a little spicier than its peers but extremely well focused and conveying outstanding texture on the finish. This is simply one of the best Echézeauxs that I have tasted in this vintage. Coquard Loison Fleurot is your new favorite domaine. I know, I know. It’s a bit of a mouthful. Writing this I keep having to check the correct spelling. It was the “surprise package” of over 100 visits tasting 2016s. It was the visit that sent tingles down my spine. It was the visit where I had to maintain my Lady Gaga-approved poker face in order to disguise the thrill. Let’s rewind a bit. C.L.F (please accept the acronym) had been on my radar for two or three years. In fact, I reviewed some of their 2013s at a London tasting organized by Robert Rolls, who distributes their wines to restaurants here in the UK. Their 2013 Clos de la Roche received 95 points, hefty praise, and in the producer blurb my avow to visit the domaine. Fast forward three years and I am sitting in Dilettante restaurant in Beaune. Serendipitously, behind me sit two chaps from Latimer Vintners who distribute C.L.F’s wines to private clients and the trade in the UK and inquire if I could join their visit to C.L.F the following day at 1 p.m. And what do you know, against all the odds, I have a rare “window” in my schedule at 1 p.m. the following day. Fate? Divine intervention? What I did not anticipate was being blown away by the quality of their 2016s in barrel. It is these unscripted episodes that I love the most. Winemaker Thomas Callodot, together with Claire Fleurot, have hit the ball out of the park with wines that will hopefully put this name on the map. For many years the crop was sold to négoçiants, and it was only around 2009 or 2010, when contracts started coming to an end, that they began bottling under their own name in their capacious winery in the heart of Flagey-Echézeaux. What is remarkable about this domaine is their holdings. Rather than the usual pyramid of holdings that might be crowned by a barrel or two of grand cru, C.L.F has no less than six grand crus to their name. Moreover, these are parcels of good vine age and considerable size, thereby giving Thomas more to play with if one or two barrels seem to be lagging behind. This includes three barrels of Grands Echézeaux from 0.18 hectares of vine, though sadly reduced to a single barrel in 2016 because of frost, as well as 1.29 hectares in Echézeaux. Oddly, their range skips over premier crus (even their sole Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru includes some declassified Echézeaux, though frankly, I would be bottling the Beaumonts under its own label!), but even their village crus are located in some of the more reputed vineyards at that level. Winemaking is classic and hands-off, and the 2016s are completely destemmed except for the Grands Echézeaux due to limited quantity. I found the oak here prudently used . . . allowing the terroirs to really shine in a vintage that permitted that. Stylistically, I was thinking of Mugneret-Gibourg or his nearby neighbor Emmanuel Rouget, wines brimming full of crystalline red fruit and tension with satin textures and spine-tingling tension. Thomas himself, a good friend of Sebastien Cathiard, seemed to be a chilled out and relaxed fellow who, perhaps out of the limelight, has been allowed to refine his craft. It is rare that you ever stumble across a domaine that owns their own vines, boasts enviable holdings of grand crus and, yet, seems to have flown under the radar with the exception of one or two eagle-eyed importers. If the wines are as brilliant as these 2016s, that will not be the case for much longer.