Couly-Dutheil Chinon Clos de l'Echo 1982

[Saina Nieminen]

Couly-Dutheil Chinon Clos de l'Echo 1982 - 12,5% abv; Alko asks an absurd 74,90 (just to be clear, this isn't a magnum) for the pleasure of this - good though it is, I won't be buying.

I have very little experience with older Loire reds, but without these crucial and necessary reference points this was a very enjoyable drop. Ignorance is bliss (though, as the clich goes, if that's true, why are there so many unhappy people about?).

Initially it is a light wine that smells of bell pepper. But it fills out and begins to smell lovely: tobacco and wet earth and with a bit of lovely tart berry aromas and refreshing herbaceousness. The initial lightness was an illusion: it seems quite full and ripe. Despite some lovely sour and refreshing sensations there is some fruity sweetness still (must still be too young, then...). Still pleasantly structured - what I so often dislike about old wine is that the tannins disappear though the aromatics may become more interesting. Not so with this wine: there is both enough tannin to satisfy my tea-trained palate and all the lovely, decaying aromas of aged wine.

 

[Vincent Fritzsche]

One of the first Loire reds I remember having was the '90 of this bottling, back in '94 or '95. I think the Wine Club in SF had it for $9. I bought a few. Delightful stuff, though obviously I had it way too young.

 

[Thor]

I'm fairly certain I had a bottle of this in a restaurant in Chinon, in '99 or so, and it was beautiful then, too. Glad to hear it's holding on.

 

[SFJoe]

Just as a datum, '89 Baudry Grezeaux was spectacular last night. Electric.

I've never had old Echo.