The 2017 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Cuvée Vieilles Vignes is also showing very well from bottle, unfurling in the glass with a deep bouquet of sweet red berries, plums and cassis, complemented by sweet soil tones and lifted top notes of orange rind and peonies. Full-bodied, layered and multidimensional, it's deep and concentrated, its velvety tannins and succulent acids cloaked in an ample core of fruit. This is a brilliant wine from Domaine Ponsot.
Domaine Ponsot began their harvest in the Côte de Nuits on September 6, concluding six days later, and winemaker Alexandre Abel opted to extract gently, as color and tannin came rapidly this year. The wines have turned out very well, cut from very different cloth than the immensely charming 2017s—which are revisited from bottle here. Though alcohols are not especially extreme, ranging from 13.6% to 14.1%, the 2018s chez Ponsot are muscular and structured, built for the long haul, but they remain very much faithful to both the domaine's style and its terroirs. So, congratulations are due to Alexandre Able and Rose-Marie Ponsot on another very successful vintage. William Kelley
