Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
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.
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Wine Spectator
This has density and a chewy quality to its macerated cherry, licorice, mineral and spice aromas and flavors. Elegant, firmly structured and well-integrated, with a long finish of spice and mineral. Not a flattering red, but soulful and expressive of place. Best from 2012 through 2024. 160 cases imported.
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.”
The origin of perhaps the world’s very finest Pinot Noir, Côte de Nuits is the northern half of the Côte d'Or and includes the famous wine villages of Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Vougeot, Vosne-Romanée, Flagey-Echezeaux and Nuits-St-Georges.
Fine whites from Chardonnay are certainly found in the Côte de Nuits, but with much less frequency than top-performing reds made of Pinot noir. The little village of Nuits-St-Georges in its southern end gave the region its name: Côte de Nuits. The city of Dijon marks its northern border.