Domaine Ponsot

William Ponsot was the original founder of Domaine Ponsot, when he settled in Morey-St.-Denis in 1872. He bought various plots of vineyards from this village, including the “Clos des Monts Luissants” which partly has been planted with white grape varieties since the Middle Ages.

At a certain time, this piece of land of “Clos des Monts Luissants” which belongs to Domaine Ponsot contained 3 white grapes: Aligoté, Chardonnay and Pinot Gouges (a type of Pinot blanc, which was originally Pinot Noir).

At present, only Aligoté still exists in the vineyard, already planted in 1911 by William Ponsot. The current owner is Laurent Ponsot (since 1983) and this man became famous as a detective by discovering counterfeit bottles of his domaine from the past while it was impossible that these wines were produced and / or bottled at the domaine itself! With this he was one of the people who lead to the unmasking of Rudi Kurniawan. Since 2017, Laurent Ponsot has been operating under his own name as Domaine Laurent Ponsot.

All the wines are domaine-bottled since 1934, but a small proportion was already bottled for family use and restaurants since the beginning in 1872. Domaine Ponsot owns brilliant pieces of vineyard (50% is Grand Cru), especially in Morey-St.-Denis, but also in Gevrey-Chambertin and Chambolle-Musigny.

The collection vineyards include: “Clos St.-Denis Grand Cru Cuvée Très Vieilles Vignes” (0.38 Ha and vines planted back in 1905!), “Clos de la Roche Grand Cru” (Domaine Ponsot owns the “Lion’s Share with 3.35 Ha), Chambertin Grand Cru (0.14 Ha), Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru (0.47 Ha) and Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru (0.89 Ha), and multiple 1er Cru vineyards, all planted with Pinot Noir.

Domaine Ponsot uses different techniques to authenticate their bottles of wine, including the famous “white spot” on the label, the hologram placed on the capsule and a unique bubble code, which is impossible to reproduce.

Top recent vintages for Domaine Ponsot are:  2005, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2015, but some bottles from the past are truly magnificent.