Winemaker Notes
The vineyard, which is around sixty years old on average, produces wines with aromas of red or black fruits, but also of very ripe white fruits, peaches or apricots. The tannins in large quantities are fine and fully integrated into the mellowness and aromas.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This red is rich, round and very accessible, tasting of freshly crushed berry and cherry. A phalanx of ripe tannins lurks in the background, but this is balanced and ends with a spicy note.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Courcel’s 2005 Pommard Grand Clos des Epenots (which exhibits a notably darker color than Courcel’s other wines) leads with aromas of cassis, smoked meat, bitter chocolate, and resin. In the mouth, this is concentrated and compact in structure, yet rich and expansive in flavor, with dark fruit, meat stock and chocolate mingling in a concentrated reduction, tinged by bitter fruit skin, fruit pit, coffee ground and wet stone. Ample, rich fruit covers the abundant and tightly-stitched tannin, but the almost savagely intense finish betrays a hint of heat from the wine’s roughly 14.5% alcohol.
Range: 91-92
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.