Professional reviews
Robert Parker (94)
Ponsot’s 2008 Clos St.-Denis Cuvee Tres Vieilles Vignes smells of violets, tar, game, and black fruits in a manner that puts me momentarily in mind of a great Barolo. Rich purple plum and blackberry pour out over a creamy palate while inner-mouth profusion of violet and lily – along with underlying salt and stone – serve for allure, intrigue, and saliva-inducement. This is a distinctly decadent as well as mysteriously and complexly-nuanced Pinot that finishes with haunting length and the promise of two decades, perhaps more, of fascination.
Jancis Robinson (18.50)
Four barrels made from 103 year-old vines. The yield in 2008 was just 12 hl/ha (‘We lose money on it’, according to Laurent Ponsot). Very opulent with a hauntingly layered nose. Almost more reminiscent of a cherry liqueur than a wine. Great energy – rather like a healthy drink for its real spine of life. Subtle, sweet, wild and long but with excellent freshness. ‘Probably the sort of wine that was drunk 200 years ago,’ Ponsot claims. (JR)
Burghound (96)
In contrast to the reserved nature of the prior wines, here there is a highly expressive nose featuring both ripe and superbly complex blue and red pinot fruit, plum, violets wet stone and touches of underbrush and warm earth that merge into full, rich, intense and as one would expect, distinctly powerful flavors that possess buckets of dry extract that render the firm tannins almost invisible though this will also need at least a decade to fully resolve the underlying structure. This is a powerful but utterly graceful wine.
