1934 Domaine René Couly, Couly-Dutheil Chinon
The labels are recent as the wine was almost certainly stored in a limestone cellar without a label
It was a great privilege to be at yesterday's vertical of Chinons covering vintages from 1934 through to 2005 held at at the Château du Rivau and many thanks to those Chinon producers who provided some of their precious old bottles to taste. Definitely the most extraordinary wine was the 1934 Domaine René Couly. Although not the best wine I tasted in this vertical, it was remarkable for its longevity – this was no faded ghost at the feast of Chinons! Wisely the tasting started from the oldest to the youngest so this 1934 was our first wine.
The 1934 still vibrant and a good colour
What was immediately striking was how vibrant and relatively youthful the colour of the 1934 was. I'm sure that if served blind no-one would guess that this is a 77 year-old wine. Of course a little bricky but not brown. The aromas were spicy, fungal – mushroomy in an attractive sense with touches of sous bois, sweet evolved fruit on the palate finishing with quite marked acidity. Ready to drink now, this 1934 could be kept longer, unlike some of the later vintages (subject of another post/s.)
Pierre Couly (Pierre and Bertrand Couly) gave us flowering and vintage dates for all the wines. The 1934 vintage started on 6th October, which, although it would be considered late today, was around the normal time to start in those days. It certainly wasn't a late vintage.
This bison, from the trophy room at the Château du Rivau where we had dinner on the Thursday and who expressed some clear reservations about the possible condition of the 1934, was happily proved to be mistaken.
