Wine Advisor
Ponsot, Chapelle Chambertin Grand Cru 2020
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2020 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru has a slight metallic reduction on the nose that will need a few years to blow off (I think it will). The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red fruit, gentle grip, quite tangy in the mouth with marmalade infusing the red plum and blackcurrant fruit towards the finish. I suspect this might shut down for several years before reawakening.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2020 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru has quite a bold bouquet with blackberries, raspberry coulis, Clementine and just a soupçon of marmalade. Lovely definition and beautifully integrated oak. The palate is very pliant on the entry with a silky smooth texture, very harmonious with an almost Vosne-like sensuality on the finish. This cuvée now sees less extraction at lower temperatures and I believe this has certainly meliorated this wine.
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Revisited in bottle, the 2020 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru opens in the glass with aromas of dark berries, plums and spices, mingled with hints of licorice and peony. Full-bodied, rich and structured, this has shut down hard in the last year, with lively acids and powdery structuring tannins in the foreground. It shows terrific potential but will demand patience.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2020 Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru has a slight metallic reduction on the nose that will need a few years to blow off (I think it will). The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red fruit, gentle grip, quite tangy in the mouth with marmalade infusing the red plum and blackcurrant fruit towards the finish. I suspect this might shut down for several years before reawakening.
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.
