It’s been a few years and I’m wondering how folks that have been buying Ponsot think these synthetic closures are holding up?
I had a Griotte-Chambertin 2008 several months ago, I think this was the first vintage with this closure (?).
Not happy, the wine was very tight with shrill acidity and quite reserved fruit, not really developed at all.
Also a young 2014 Chambolle M Charmes and a Gevrey 2014 tasted in summer 2017 was not very “charming”, also more acidity than typical for the vintage.
Curiously a 1996 Clos de la Roche, a vintage I had problems with 2 times, was really singing recently, much better than expected.
Eventually I am not sure if this closure is for the benefit of the wines and their evolution, but who knows.
I stopped buying all Ponsot due to this closure.
The last time I had the 08 Griottes a few months ago, it was undrinkably muddy. From solid provenance so storage not an issue, but I can’t attribute the crappiness of that bottle to the cork or a wine that was bad to begin with.
I’ve had the 2008 Charmes-Chambertin Cuvée des Merles twice in the past few years. The first time I didn’t really care for it, finding a funky vegetal character. The second time a few months ago it was horribly reduced and basically undrinkable. I also apparently had a 2008 Griotte last year but I have no recollection of how it showed.
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The other problem is cork notwithstanding, the wines suck most of the time anyway.
And with the fool proof “closure” they will suck for years to come.
I haven’t purchased any Ponsot since the 2010 vintage, and certainly not the recent ones after he split off from Domaine Ponsot. Does he use the plastic cork in his current offerings?
Warning! I import wines from a family winery in Burgundy who made the switch to these closures (Ardeal Seal), in the 2003 vintage. Take my experience with a grain of salt.
At 15 years of age, the whites and reds, from the 2003 , 2004 (Grand Cru whites) and 2005 have preformed well. These are from my personal cellar.
I am not promotioning anything, hitherto, I will not name this producer.
Typo, \performed\ well.
Wonder if Ardeaseal wines require a good decant with time to come alive?
Considering the Ponsot Grand Cru’s often need 25+ years, the jury’s still out.
I think that the interesting thing is that we will never know how this closure performs against wines bottled under different closures. Therefore, no matter how a wine smells or tastes, there will always be a ‘cloud’ over the bottle, and folks will wonder ‘what if’. I know the feeling. . .
Cheers
They still bottle all the magnums and larger formats under natural cork…
FWIW, I think the wines have been evolving much more consistently this millennium.
Larry,
What we do “know” in my narrow example;
- All six bottles in a single case are consistent. The oxygen ingress is constant.
*We have not, in 15 years, received a invoice for a “corked” bottle from distribution partners nor their clients.
Ponsot did the elevage on a barrel of 09 Hospices Corton Dr Peste some friends and I purchased. I had no idea the 750’s would use this new enclosure and was quite surprised when I received them.
At this point there’s no denying they’ve performed well thus far. Many cases drunk among the group and no flawed bottles.
However the wine seems to be evolving more slowly with this enclosure. Compared to the magnums (bottled with cork) there is little difference in the evolution, the mags may even be a bit more evolved.
Still early to judge a Grand Cru at this stage but I would prefer high quality cork to these plastic enclosures.
I suspect that these new enclosures will wind up merely trading one problem for another. I’ll take the devil I know rather than the devil I don’t, as the proverb goes.
Alex,
You are correct there is no free lunch.
We may have exchanged one problem for an “unknown unknown”.
15 years in, we have solved one issue.
Best
Has anyone seen corked bottles with noma or diam? Seems like there may be other options.
Sounds like most 2008 red Burgundies.
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Well, last night I had a less than enjoyable bottle of 2010 Ponsot Gevrey Chambertin Cuvee de L’Abeille where it looks like there was some sort of fault with the cork that caused some wine to build-up and then start to oxidize. The wine was drinkable, but nowhere near to the same quality as the previous bottle I had about a year or two ago.