2014 Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes

The 2014 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Cuvée Vieilles Vignes reveals a pretty bouquet of red plums, blackberries, spring flowers and potpourri. On the palate, it's full-bodied, velvety and layered, with tangy acids, fine-grained but chalky tannins and a deep, concentrated core of fruit. While this has shut down, it isn't as structurally reserved as some of the top 2014s have become. It's an elegant Clos de la Roche in the making. Harvested on September 18, this was one of Ponsot's earliest harvests in recent years: the 2013 Clos de la Roche, for example, was picked on October 9.

The 2014 Clos De La Roche Cuvée Vieilles Vignes is impressive and offers an incredibly beautiful, fresh, elegant style in its black raspberry, cherries, forest floor, spice, and floral aromas and flavors. Possessing a complex, dried earth-like minerality, ultra-fine tannin, medium to full-bodied richness, and a sensational finish, it shows the purity, freshness, and vibrancy that’s the hallmark of the 2014 vintage and has a long life ahead of it.

There is enough wood to notice along with a hint of menthol on the markedly earthy red and dark berry fruit aromas where background hints of spice and floral elements are in evidence. The overtly powerful and concentrated broad-shouldered flavors display almost painful intensity before culminating in an explosively long and very firmly structured finish where once again a hint of bitter cherry appears. This is an interesting wine of contrasts as the mid-palate, even with all of its intensity, possesses a caressing palate feel yet the finish is bold, robust and unyielding. As the description confirms, this is going to require a long snooze in a cool cellar.