Cellar Favorite:
2013 Domaine Jean-François Coche-Dury Le Corton Grand Cru 

BY NEAL MARTIN | NOVEMBER 3, 2025&nbsp;

Unicorn is a word frequently
misappropriated with respect to wine. In this case, the word is merited, even
if unicorns do not exist. On the other hand, there are many Coche-Dury
aficionados who are unaware that the subject of this Cellar Favorite does
exist.

Rewind
ten years. It is 2015. I am at Manhattan’s hottest place for wine geeks, La
Racine. Accompanied by colleagues from my former publication, we pore over the
wine list, a veritable treasure trove of fermented delights. However, there is
one particular wine that catches my eye…<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1762181826082-CF_Nov32025.jpg">There
it is. The fabled 2013 Le Corton Grand Cru from Domaine Coche-Dury,
a one-off bottling from a parcel of Pinot Noir recently purchased by
Jean-François Coche. The domaine’s plan was always to pull up the vines after
the first harvest and replant the parcel with Chardonnay to augment their
existing 0.33-hectare parcel leased beginning in 1986. Just two barrels (600
bottles) of Le Corton were made and, to the best of my knowledge, shipped
Stateside by importer Kermit Lynch. If I recall, the wine was listed for a cool
$1,000. Two of us began to cajole the others to split the cost because this
would be our only chance. 

C’mon
guys! 

Despite
our best efforts, we could not persuade the others to chip in, and instead we
drank something no doubt tasty, but that would never be indelibly printed on
our memories like that Corton would have been.

October
2025. I am tasting with Raphael and Jean-François Coche at their winery in
Meursault. I recount the sorry tale of New York and my missed chance. Raphael
slips away and returns with one of their few remaining fabled bottles. The wine
shows few signs of aging—not a particularly deep colour given the growing
season—and its bouquet is also typical of the 2013 reds, with a sense of
coolness and rusticity. Cranberry and raspberry commingle with undergrowth, autumn
leaves and hints of rusty piping. The palate is well balanced with quite a firm
backbone, though you can tell that after a couple of hours it would surely
mellow and cohere. It is unapologetically rough around the edges, possibly due
to hail damage in that year, though that is an integral part of its charm.
Drinking the 2013, I understand why they uprooted the vines and switched to
Chardonnay, as it does not have the élan of their Corton-Charlemagne. 92/Drink
2025-2036.

<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1761925440697-raphael+chalking_Vinous.JPG">Raphael
chalks wine and vintage to identify the bottle, and I take a snap.

The
moral of this Cellar Favorite is simple. If you spot a wine you might never
see again, don’t wait for tomorrow. 

&nbsp;© 2025, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or redistributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.

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