2008 Clos St Denis Cuvee Tres Vieilles Vignes
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Tasting notes
Ponsot’s 2008 Clos St.-Denis Cuvee Tres Vieilles Vignes smells of violets, tar, game, and black fruits in a manner that puts me momentarily in mind of a great Barolo. Rich purple plum and blackberry pour out over a creamy palate while inner-mouth profusion of violet and lily – along with underlying salt and stone – serve for allure, intrigue, and saliva-inducement. This is a distinctly decadent as well as mysteriously and complexly-nuanced Pinot that finishes with haunting length and the promise of two decades, perhaps more, of fascination. I asked Laurent Ponsot what he though were the critical factors in avoiding the prevalent pink, under-ripe grapes scattered within the clusters of 2008 vintage Pinot Noir, whose undesirable flavors were bound to have concentrated under the influence of late September wind right along with those of the properly ripe berries. “First of all,” he replied, “you had to prune correctly, which is the beginning of everything – like being in front of a piece of wood or stone as a sculptor and beginning to carve a statue. It’s artistic – not simply something that will determine how many grapes (you end up with). After that, you focus on working with and not in opposition to nature’s cycle. Why are we always the last in Burgundy to pick their grapes? It’s because we pick on time.” In the case of 2008, that meant commencing on the eighth of October; and Ponsot’s 2007s – which taste as though they must come from a completely unfamiliar not to mention remarkably great vintage – were not picked until after the middle of September. “I wasn’t sure in early tastings,” says Ponsot about his 2008s, “that all of the elements would fit together into something harmonious.” For the most part, though, they have – at least, based on my tastings from a range of barrels in late winter. With regard to the distinctively delicious and atypical personality I discovered in Ponsot’s 2007s, readers should bear in mind that he employs some of the lowest levels of sulfur in Burgundy, so there’s no pepping-up going on here by means of dosage, which is seldom employed at all! I couldn’t help thinking as I tasted them: was this much excitement really implicit in 2007 generally and somehow the opportunity to capture it was missed at more than 90% of the addresses where I taste? Incidentally, the big news at Domaine Ponsot last year – although, Laurent Ponsot’s choice of synthetic closures for future bottlings and his remorseless pursuit of forgers and security justifiably made headlines – was that there will be Corton, Corton-Bressandes, and Corton-Charlemagne here beginning with vintage 2009. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Allen Meadows, Burghound
More reviews and scores
Four barrels made from 103 year-old vines. The yield in 2008 was just 12 hl/ha (‘We lose money on it’, according to Laurent Ponsot). Very opulent with a hauntingly layered nose. Almost more reminiscent of a cherry liqueur than a wine. Great energy – rather like a healthy drink for its real spine of life. Subtle, sweet, wild and long but with excellent freshness. ‘Probably the sort of wine that was drunk 200 years ago,’ Ponsot claims. (JR)
In contrast to the reserved nature of the prior wines, here there is a highly expressive nose featuring both ripe and superbly complex blue and red pinot fruit, plum, violets wet stone and touches of underbrush and warm earth that merge into full, rich, intense and as one would expect, distinctly powerful flavors that possess buckets of dry extract that render the firm tannins almost invisible though this will also need at least a decade to fully resolve the underlying structure. This is a powerful but utterly graceful wine.
About the producer
Domaine Ponsot is one of the most well-known estates in the Côte de Nuits, famed for owning three of the original four hectares of the Clos de la Roche Grand Cru. The legendary domaine also produces another nine Grand Cru cuvées.