2018 Clos de la Roche, Cuvée Vieilles Vignes, Grand Cru, Domaine Ponsot, Burgundy

The 2018 Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes Grand Cru offers darker fruit on the nose, confit raspberry mixed with cassis scents, maybe showing a little overripeness. The volatility begins to impede after 10 minutes in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, quite velvety smooth, with an attractive spiciness that comes through on the finish. This is a very fine Clos de la Roche, discombobulated slightly by the growing season. There’s a chance it might redeem itself in bottle, but I feel only a small chance.

Drink 2025 - 2046

Dark colour, racily volatile. The fruit is blacker rather than red, and the texture has been slightly coarsened. This wine is a work in progress, and not quite clear yet what the final result will be. There is a sweetness to the fruit but not enough elegance, while a little point of acidity at the finish adds a valuable nuance. The bouquet developed a slight vegetal touch, which cost this intriguing wine a point or two. It is very much a work in progress, but it could settle down to provide an exciting bottle—ardeaseal closure.

Drink 2033

Ponsot’s 2018 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Cuvée Vieilles Vignes was only bottled in July 2020, and its extended élevage has really refined the wine. Opening in the glass with aromas of dark berries, cherries and plums mingled with dark chocolate, preserved citrus peel, woodsmoke and spices, it’s full-bodied, concentrated and powerful, with real depth and mid-palate amplitude, its rich, powdery tannins largely concealed in a generous core of fruit. This is a muscular wine somewhat reminiscent of a more gourmand version of the domaine’s 2005, and it will demand patience.

Drink 2028 - 2068

The aggregate size of this holding is a whopping 3.4 ha, and Ponsot is by far the largest holder in Clos de la Roche.

A brooding and almost grumpy nose only grudgingly gives up its aromas of poached plum, warm earth, smoked game, and plenty of spice nuances. The velvety and opulent big-bodied flavours brim with an abundance of dry extract that imparts a seductive mid-palate mouth but also serves to buffer the remarkably firm tannic spine, shaping the powerful and hugely long finish where the only nit is a suggestion of warmth. This is a fantastic but seriously imposing wine with the structure to match, so this is one to buy and forget you own it. In a word, brilliant.

Drink 2043

It’s fascinating to taste the two components of this superb wine, grown only 50 metres apart, as well as the finished blend, to see that the pair is much greater than the sum of their parts. Retaining acidity and focus in a hot year, this is a refined, violet-perfumed Pinot Noir that combines sensuous texture and fruit sweetness with acidity and an underlying tannic structure. Domaine Ponsot is flourishing under the new régime.

Drink 2028 - 2038