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Clos de la Roche 2005 75cl

AOC Grand Cru | Côte de Nuits | Burgundy | France
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Critics scores
98 By Robert Parker
The estate?s flagship 2005 Clos de la Roche Cuvee Vieilles Vignes surges from the glass in an aromatic tidal wave of liqueur-like black raspberry essence, cinnamon spice, praline, chocolate and heady floral sweetness. Incontrovertibly fat and full, not about clarity or discretion but rather about thick, sumptuous layers of flavor that blanket the palate, this will not be every taster?s idea of a great Burgundy ? or perhaps even a good time. Still, there is lift, bright juiciness and a sense of emerging elegance in a finish where sheer intensity and unabashed richness rule but neither the fruit nor tannins are the least bit coarse, and stony, chalky underpinnings break the surface with their own sort of austere beauty. (Thankfully, there is roughly ten times the amount of this wine as of Clos St.-Denis.)
Producer
Domaine Ponsot
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.