2018 Pommard Grands Epenots
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Tasting notes
The wines, an “old-school” style of Pommard, age gloriously. Forget heft and hard tannins: this is elegant, red-fruited and pure Pinot, nevertheless with the appellation’s trademark concentration. The latest vintage to be bottled by the estate – 2018 – is now available. Grands Epenots – one of Pommard’s very finest sites – excelled in this ripe year. The warmth of the vintage has rounded out the tannins, yet the wine remains wonderfully fresh. Refined but powerful, with layers of cherry, earth and liquorice, this will blossom with time in the cellar. Lay it down and forget about it for at least three years. Intensely coloured, the 2018 Pommard Grands Epenots from Michel Gaunoux is an archetypal example of the house savoir-faire in this atypical vintage. This wine is all about balance between freshness and richness on the one hand, power and refinement on the other. The family’s rather large holding (1.74ha) in this Premier Cru perfectly captures the terroir. The nose is already quite expressive, displaying ripe dark cherries, blackcurrant and raspberry notes that evolve in the glass to a more earthy style, with liquorice and hints of spice. On the palate, it gains in complexity. Muscular, it’s concentrated with impressive power wrapped in velvety tannins. The finish is balanced and pure, lifted by distinctive acidity and a saline profile. This will take a few years to blossom and show its full potential, one to approach in three to five years, but built to age much longer.
Critic scores
Average Score
Allen Meadows, Burghound
William Kelley, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
Unwinding in the glass with a rich and complex bouquet of cherries, berries and plums mingled with violets, dried flowers and coniferous forest floor, the 2018 Pommard 1er Cru Les Grands Epenots is medium to full-bodied, layered and enveloping, with a fleshy, concentrated core of fruit underpinned by an elegantly muscular chassis of powdery structuring tannin and succulent balancing acids. This is a suave, refined Grands Epenots despite the vintage.
About the producer
Domaine Michel Gaunoux is today run by Michel’s grandchildren, Anne and Alexandre, with a guiding hand from their mother. Everything here is extremely traditional, and the family has been quietly making rich, complex and age-worthy Pommard and Corton for over half a century.