Laurent Ponsot of Domaine Ponsot decided to leave the domaine after 36 years to start his own wine domain with his son Clément.
Laurent started with a nice list of appellations, either in ownership or in sharecropping:
Bourgogne rouge
Chambolle-Musigny
Chambolle-Musigny Les Charmes
Chambertin
Griotte Chambertin
Clos Saint Denis
And he obtained vines from which he will make his first wines in 2019 :
Bourgogne rouge
Gevrey-Chambertin
Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru En Ergot
Chambolle-Musigny
Chambolle-Musigny 1er cru Les Sentiers
Bonnes Mares
The estate is 7 hectares and this will be the start for further expansion of quality vineyards. In addition, Laurent Ponsot will be a Négociant.
The last 50 years, since around 1970, the negociants lost a little of their nobility as Laurent Ponsot says. The vine growers kept the best grapes for themselves, but as they needed the cash for operation, sold part of their crops to the négociants, but their less good wines or grapes. The négociants had no alternative but to buy these 'left overs' and put their notoriety down. Luckily we are seeing more and more in Burgundy a revival of the "Grand Négoce".
So for Laurent Ponsot "négociant" is not a bad word and his goal is to produce great wines.
His search for an alliance between history and high technology continues with his knowledge of the past, such as the technological closure, élevage without sulfur but under neutral gas, the control the temperature of "intelligent cases", the protection of authenticity. And this list continues.
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