Charmes Chambertin Cuvée des Merles (Ex-Domaine) 2003 600cl

One of the most iconoclastic domaines in all of Burgundy, Domaine Ponsot was run for almost 20 years by the well-spoken, debonair and individualistic - Laurent Ponsot. The domaine was created in 1872 by his great-uncle William Ponsot who was originally from Saint Romain. Highly unusual at the time, from the beginning, they bottled a portion of their own wine but only for their own consumption or for their restaurants (they owned a franchise of Northern Italian station buffets). Laurent was a purist in terms of winemaking; however, he was also not overly keen to explain what he exactly did. Perhaps he wanted to keep it a bit of a secret, but it is also possible that he wanted the wine to speak for itself rather than break it down by a step-by-step analysis of winemaking techniques. A version of its ‘sum is greater than its parts'. In general, he preferred that the fruit spoke for itself. Since 2005, his wines have been on a roll with each vintage hitting a bullseye in that given year. In 2017 Laurent Ponsot quitted the activity and the domaine is nowadays run by his sister Rose-Marie Ponsot with Alexandre Abel.