Winemaker Notes
Spicy wines with aromas leaning towards cassis and white fruits, such as mango.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
This opens with air to reveal alluring aromas and flavors of blackberry, black currant, violet and spice. Dense and firm, yet also supple, showing an elegant side of Pommard, ending with fine length. Decant now or age for several years. Best from 2022 through 2037. 100 cases imported.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Pommard Vaumuriens is more balanced than the more expensive Grand Clos Des Epenots and has a medium-bodied, structured, tannic, yet concentrated style. Offering lots of stem influence in its darker fruits, exotic spices, and peppermint aromatics, it has present, slightly rustic tannin, a solid mid-palate, and good length as well as ripeness. It’s a big, rich, structured Pommard that needs 3-5 years of bottle age and will keep for another decade.
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.