Winemaker Notes
Pairs well with red meat in sauce, game, venison, and full-flavored cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Though rich, there is a dense, beefy quality to this red, showcasing the black cherry, plum, earth and iron flavors. Not a layered, complex style, yet with the weight and power for winter stews and braised meats.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Pommard 1er Cru is showing nicely, wafting from the glass with aromas of dark berries, smoked meats, plums and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, rich and fleshy, with lively acids, powdery tannins and a generous core of fruit, it concludes with a savory finish.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Bouchard Père & Fils Pommard Premier Cru shows an elevated state on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine is saturated and long. Enjoy its black fruits aromas and flavors, as well as its opulence with baked game birds in an Époisses sauce. (Tasted: March 3, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Representing some of the darkest, deepest and sturdiest Pinot Noir of Burgundy, Pommard is one of the two villages in Côte de Beaune—along with Volnay—that is recognized for its impressive Pinot Noir. While it can’t boast any Grands Crus vineyards, its extraordinary Premiers Crus vineyards are aplenty.
Les Pézerolles, Les Épenots, Clos des Épeneaux, Les Chanlins, Les Jarolières, Les Fremiers and particularly Les Rugiens are among the most outstanding Premiers Crus.
The best Pommards will be concentrated in flavors such as black cherry, blackberry and dark chocolate, have dazzling aromas of violets, menthol or wild herbs and a firm and powerful finish. They typically demand some time in the bottle to reach their peak.