Tasting Pommards from Casa del Vno

WINE TALK
1

This afternoon we headed for Albuquerque for a Pommard tasting by Casa del Vino at El Norteño. It was going to be an interesting tasting for me, since for many years Pommard has been my least favorite commune in Burgundy. We had them in four flights of three 1999s and one flight of one 1999 and one 1988.

Food by El Norteño to accompany was a nice Queso Fundido with small flour tortillas, mild vegetarian-green chile enchiladas, chicken breast with a creamy cheese sauce, and shredded beef with a light avocado sauce. All were good with the Burgundies and somewhat softened them.

The wines were:

1999 Jarollières Jean-Marc Boillot - dull red fruit, medium long finish; improving and opening with time
1999 Jarollières Nicolas Potel - bright red & dark fruit, medium long finish (WOTF)
1999 Jarollières la Pousse d’Or - wide orange edge; somewhat oxidized, dull fruit, medium finish; disappointing

1999 Epenots Vincent Girardin - ok red & black fruit, medium long finish (WOTF)
1999 Epenots Louis Jadot - odd nose and fruit, medium finish
1999 Epenots Nicolas Potel - lightly corked, little fruit

1999 Epenots Caillot - rich red & dark fruit, long finish, improving with time
1999 Epenots Voillot - bright red & dark fruit, long finish (WOTF)
1999 Epenots Doninique Laurent - heavily corked!!

1999 Clos des Epenots Chateau de Meursault - very hard, long time to begin to open
1999 Clos des Epenots Comte de Armand - extremely hard. didn’t open much with time
1999 Grand Clos des Epenots de Courcel - hard, opened a little more than the others to dark fruit

1999 Grand Epenots Michel Gaunoux - bright red & dark fruit; some tannins, long finish
1988 Grand Epenots Michel Gaunoux - rich open red & dark fruit, soft tannins, very long finish (WOTN)


This tasting confirmed my disinterest in young Pommards and I have had very few well aged Pommards. I did purchase some '88s to see how they develop.

2

The only Gaunaux wines I’ve had have been some quite enjoyable Meursaults. I keep meaning to investigate the reds and this makes me more curious to do so.

While I like both Courcel and Comte Armande, there is no doubt they are wines to catch young or wait a long time on. Bummer on the Pousse d’Or being lousy, and I’m mildly surprised to hear the 99 Voillot wasn’t closed and hard as nails.

3

Thanks for the notes…I’ve loved the Voillot’s that I’ve had

4

Thanks for the notes Dick- sounds like it would have been a pretty young and grumpy set of Pommards, given that '99 produced pretty structured wines down south in general and in Pommard in particular. I love the Michel Gaunoux wines, which are by quite a wide margin my favorites in the commune, though Volnay maestro, Michel Lafarge’s Pommard “Pezerolles” can also be pretty special wine with sufficient bottle age, and it would have been interesting to see how it would have fared in your lineup of other youngsters from the '99 vintage. There are a couple of other Pommards that I have really started to like in the last few years of tasting them out of barrel, but do not have any experience with as mature wines: Lucien Camus (of Domaine Camus-Bruchon in Savigny-les-Beaune) makes a terrific bottle from the premier cru of Les Arvelets, and Gilles Lafouge in Auxey-Duresses makes another outstanding premier cru from Les Chanlins. I suspect that both of these would also have been very interesting additions to your lineup of '99s.

Which villages in general do you usually gravitate to in Burgundy for your reds? For many years I have been more of a Chambolle, Volnay and Gevrey guy for the most part, with a bit of Vosne tossed in, but have been really starting to like a lot more of the Savignys I taste these days and they are really beginning to play catch up in my cellar with some of these other villages. To date the only Pommards in my cellar in depth are from Michel Gaunoux, and to a lesser extent, Hubert de Montille, but I am finding that I like the twenty to thirty year bottles of Pommard, Corton and Nuits St. Georges that I taste from time to time often pretty special, and have been thinking that I have been remiss in not cellaring more examples from these more robust communes.

Best,

John

5

I tend to prefer Volnay, Vosne-Romanée, Morey St. Denis, & Chambolle-Musigny, with occasional Nuits St. George & Gevrey-Chambertin. G-C is a relatively recent acquisition; in the 50s and 60s the village and 1er cru wines had a medicinal / resiny character that I didn’t care for. Recent vintages don’t seem to have that.