2007 Clos de la Roche VV Assortment Case (1997-2002)

Deep and purplish and just a little tired on the nose (presumably because it had been opened 12 hours before serving). Wonderful peacock's tail finish suggested that the nose of this wine was probably much more impressive earlier on. Dusty/tarry finish rather recalled Barolo(!) and was super-clean. Rather a tantalising liquid but I'd love to taste another bottle. I have given a suggested drinking window on the basis of this early-opened example. (JR)

A magnificently complex nose offers up a mix of both high and medium-toned aromas of mostly red berries but with a panoply of background nuances including leather, tea, underbrush, spice hints, jerky and smoke, most of which transfer to the textured, intense and precise full-bodied flavors that are, somewhat surprisingly, not quite as dense as those of the Clos St. Denis but actually finer (normally it's the reverse), all wrapped in a hugely long and explosive finish that completely coats the palate with extract, indeed so much of it that this does not seem all that structured yet it will clearly need at least 15 years to be at its best. Note that there was a hair of backend dryness in evidence that I am attributing to the recent bottling.

Bacon fat, game, dark berries and decadent suggestions of faded lily and musky, nose-wrinkling narcissus scent the Ponsot 2007 Clos de La Roche Cuvee Vieilles Vignes. Reconvening on a finely-tannic, expansive palate, the game and smoked meat elements take precedence at least for now over the wines black fruits. But much of the sense of clarity and buoyancy as well as primary juiciness that rendered the corresponding Clos St.-Denis so thrilling return in the finish here, too, along with a persistently deep alliance of carnal and stony mineral elements. I would expect this to perform profoundly over the next two decades. ||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. Wine Advocate.June, 2010