Dom. Ponsot
Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru
Morey-Saint-Denis
2016

The producer

Jean-Marie Ponsot, born in 1927 and long time mayor of Morey-Saint-Denis, started working for his father in 1947, taking over full responsibility in 1957. His son, Laurent, has been in charge of winemaking since 1983. Today the estate owns 8.73 hectares of vineyards, of which the most famous – 3.35 hectares of the Clos-de-la-Roche Grand Cru vineyard – is the Ponsot family’s pride and joy. In fact, the Ponsots are the largest landowner in Clos-de-la-Roche and their version is said to have a certain special something about it, a certain power and intensity, which are not found in other producer’s interpretation of Clos-de-la-Roche.    

The Ponsots were among the first domaines in Burgundy to do estate bottling, in 1934, and were also amongst the first growers to understand the importance of clonal selection in the early 1960s – many of the most important Pinot Noir clones, used globally today, originate from the Ponsot vineyards. The family also adopts different elements of organic and biodynamic farming but does not want to be certified in either.

Laurent Ponsot is famous for his efforts to combat the falsification of fine wines, which is depicted in the 2016 Netflix documentary ‘Sour Grapes’ in which Laurent is one of the key figures in convicting wine fraudster Rudi Kurniawan.  In 2017, Laurent Ponsot stepped down from running the estate, leaving his sister Rose-Marie Ponsot in charge.

The wine

Ponsot is with 3.31 hectares the largest landowner in the Clos de la Roche grand cru, which naturally, is the family’s pride and joy. This is the most northerly of Morey’s grand cru vineyards, with soil rich in limestone and with clay and pebbles in the topsoil, and a gently east-facing exposure. Ageing takes place in 10-year-old French oak barrels and lasts for 18-24 months. Ponsot’s are some of the most expressive and aromatically vibrant wines in the Cotes, with powerful concentration, depth, and balance.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.