Clos de la Roche Vv Domaine Ponsot 2007 (OWC 3) (150cl)

Description

By John Gilman in 2014 (JG97)

I had very much liked the Ponsot Clos de la Roche out of barrel, but it certainly seems like I underrated it a bit back in the fall of 2008, as the wine has really turned out brilliantly and is already drinking with great complexity and breed at age seven. The absolutely brilliant bouquet soars from the glass in a blaze of black plums, black truffles, roasted venison, woodsmoke, coffee, incipient sous bois, fresh herb tones and a lovely base of dark soil. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and beautifully complex, with a great core of pure fruit, stunning soil signature, melting tannins and stunning length and grip on the focused and utterly classic finish. Stunning juice!

By Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate in 2010 (WA96)

Bacon fat, game, dark berries and decadent suggestions of faded lily and musky, nose-wrinkling narcissus scent the Ponsot 2007 Clos de La Roche Cuvee Vieilles Vignes. Reconvening on a finely-tannic, expansive palate, the game and smoked meat elements take precedence at least for now over the wines black fruits. But much of the sense of clarity and buoyancy as well as primary juiciness that rendered the corresponding Clos St.-Denis so thrilling return in the finish here, too, along with a persistently deep alliance of carnal and stony mineral elements. I would expect this to perform profoundly over the next two decades.

By Allen Meadows of Burghound in 2010 (AM94)

A magnificently complex nose offers up a mix of both high and medium-toned aromas of mostly red berries but with a panoply of background nuances including leather, tea, underbrush, spice hints, jerky and smoke, most of which transfer to the textured, intense and precise full-bodied flavors that are, somewhat surprisingly, not quite as dense as those of the Clos St. Denis but actually finer (normally it’s the reverse), all wrapped in a hugely long and explosive finish that completely coats the palate with extract, indeed so much of it that this does not seem all that structured yet it will clearly need at least 15 years to be at its best.