1979 Meursault Les Perrieres

The 1979 Meursault Les Perrières 1er Cru has a burnished golden hue commensurate with its age. The bouquet is delightful, still fresh and well-defined, featuring dried honey, pralines, white flowers and just a suggestion of tinned apricot. Given the vintage, I am impressed by the stoniness of this Meursault, which articulates the vineyard with clarity. The palate may be showing its age and does not constitute the best Coche-Dury that I have tasted. Yet it is very refined and elegant in style, offering admirable salinity and orange pith and white peach toward the finish, plus a scintilla of nougat on the aftertaste. The 1979 does not boast the intellectual capacity of the very best Coche-Dury wines, but my word, it remains an absolute pleasure to drink!