Wine Advisor
Ponsot, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Cuvee Vieilles Vignes 2016
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: William Kelley
The 2016 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Cuvée Vieilles Vignes is superb, bursting from the glass with aromas of juicy cherries, peonies, blood orange, licorice, raw cocoa and espresso roast. On the palate, it's full-bodied, deep and succulent, with a concentrated, layered mid-palate, satiny structuring tannins and vibrant underlying acidity, concluding with a long finish. Harvested on October 7 at a comparatively high yield by Ponsot's standards of 38 hectoliters per hectare, this year seems to have been perfectly adapted to Ponsot's style. Vibrant, elegant and expressive, the 2016 is quite different from the richer, more powerful 2015, but in the fullness of time, I wouldn't be surprised to see it surpassing its brawnier elder sibling.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
(14% alcohol, vs. 14.5% for the 2015 bottling; the estate owns 3.35 hectares in this grand cru, mostly in the climat Clos de la Roche): Dark red with ruby tones. Fully ripe but reticent nose combines cherry and musky soil tones, lifted by a floral topnote. Compellingly sappy, thick and deep; an utterly seamless grand cru with outstanding depth of texture and an impression of energy and power to its red and black fruit and earth flavors. Boasts uncommon thickness of fruit and purity. The wonderfully long, slowly rising, edge-free finish shows terrific energy. (The estate's Chapelle-Chambertin still had some unconverted malic acidity--indeed, winemaker Alexandre Abel may need to rack the wine and warm the tank to get it to finish--and was very difficult to assess with confidence. But it's savory, rich and deep, with complex soil tones and considerable sweetness.)
About the Producer
Domaine Ponsot was founded in 1872 when William Ponsot's father purchased a house for him and some vineyards in Morey-Saint-Denis, after William returned from serving in the Franco-Prussian War. A small amount of the domaine's wine was bottled by them at this time, mainly for private use and for the family's restaurants (they owned the franchise for all the station buffets in northern Italy at the time). When William died childless in 1926, the domaine was passed to William's nephew, Hippolyte Ponsot. At the time, the domaine's holdings included Clos des Monts Luisants, a vineyard founded by William and planted with Aligoté in 1911, and a parcel of Clos de la Roche. The domaine also cultivated fruit from other appellations, such as Les Charmes and Les Combottes in Gevrey-Chambertin. The planting of Aligoté was unusual at the time; most white wine production in Burgundy had leaned towards the more economically viable Chardonnay grape in the post-Phylloxera era. The domaine began estate bottling in 1934; a rarity at the time, something only a dozen domaines did prior to World War II. They also began selling wine outside France, including to the United States, at this time. The first labels were hand-stamped and signed by Hippolyte, something he did by the fireplace in the days before television. During 1934 and 1935, Hippolyte was active in defining the Appellation d'origine contrôlée system in Burgundy, something his prior training as a lawyer and diplomat was useful in. Hippolyte retired in 1957, passing the domaine to his son, Jean-Marie Ponsot (former mayor of Morey-Saint-Denis, former president of the Cadets de Bourgogne and Grand Echanson of the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin), who had been working at the domaine since 1942 as co-winemaker and co-viticulturalist. In 1961, the domaine began working several new parcels under a type of agreement known as metayage—plots in Chambolle-Musigny, Chambertin, and Latricières-Chambertin. Their holdings expanded again in 1972, when Jean-Marie's wife, Jacqueline Ponsot Livera, inherited vines in Gevrey. The domaine was incorporated into a property company in 1975, with Jean-Marie, Jacqueline, Denis, and Marie-Antoinette Ponsot as principals. In 1981, Jean-Marie's son, Laurent Ponsot, began working at the domaine. This year also saw an expansion of the domaine's metayage agreements, adding access to Griotte Chambertin, Chambertin, Clos St Denis, and Chambolle Les Charmes from Domaine des Chezeaux (the Mercier family). Laurent took over winemaking duties at the domaine from 1983 until 2017, when he left to found Domaine Laurent Ponsot. Laurent's sister Rose-Marie remains as sole proprietor.
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