despite all this talk about Ponsot Clos de la Roche being worth its weight in gold at auction, I sacrificed a bottle of the 99 last night. Promising, but not yet delivering, fairly unevolved and a bit acidic with the touch of a sour twang at the finish, it holds a lot in reserve and needs much more time. At 15 years of age, grand cru reds are still nowhere near ready, possibly because of my cold cellar, but more likely just because they are still too young. The wine has serious depth and focus, good balance, and I like the fruit, but it needs more time to come together and evolve. Hold.
I don’t think Ponsot did particularly well in the 99 vintage. Also his cdlr does need a lot of time to come around, imo. The 90 cdlr is drinking beautifully now.
I don’t remember the exact details, but I recall that the Wine Advocate was very critical of Ponsot’s late 1990s wines - in a nutshell, for some reason their published view was that the wines were not on form. Scores were unusually low in this period.
The Wine Advocate, huh? Not the finest reviewer track record in Burgundy if memory serves…
I’m pretty sure Dugat massively outscored Ponsot in this vintage, WA rankings.
Neal Martin give it 96 P. April 2014.(Tasted Nov. 2013)
The 1999 Clos de la Roche Vieille Vignes is one of Laurent’s best wines from this hallowed vineyard. It has a generous bouquet that, as I commented before, does not mess about, almost “hugging” the olfactory senses and begging to be loved…
I think Ponsot’s '99s are going to be pretty remarkable and really special wines. I’ve had both the clos st. denis and the clos de la roche in the last 18 months, and while I agree with Alan’s note that they are nowhere near ready, I think it is fairly easy to see that beneath the dense, brooding exterior there is a massive core of fruit and complexity that simply hasn’t had time to shine through. The only burg experience to which I can compare the CSD is sampling the Rousseau '05 clos de beze shortly after release. I’m not pulling the corks on any '99 reds (and I don’t have that many) and this is one that I will hold longer than the rest. The Ponsot’s that had problems in the late 90s sort of always had problems. That isn’t what is happening with the 99s.
A
I had a 99 CSD that I didn’t care for at all two years ago. It was really sour and candied. I was kinda surprised by it. Hopefully they evolve into something else, based on ponsot’s track record I wouldn’t be surprised if in a decade it’s awesome.
I had the '99 Ponsot CdlR a couple weeks ago and agree with Alan’s assessment of the wine. Well made, brooding, great balance, dark fruits, but nowhere near showing its full potential. Wait another ten if you can…
I thought the CSD 99 to be one of the greatest wines I ever tasted - 8 or 9 years ago. Think I’ll be opening another in early November - assuming I can find them in the cellar!
We had the charmes chambertin cuvée des merles and the chapelle 1999 last week in a 1999 tasting, both were underperforming, maybe in a grumpy phase but none of us was really convinced these would turn into something really beautifull. Maybe another 10 years of cellar might do wonders, we had a latricieres 1989 in september and this was truly georgeous (outperformed everything that evening, including Roty charmes 93 and 2005).
The controversial Ponsot wines came from 95/96. Many thought them horribly flawed, but some have noted that his wines from these two vintages are finally “emerging” from a particularly long “ugly duckling” stage. This rollercoaster-like evolution is (according to your predilections) one of the more vexing/fascinating characteristics of some Burgundies, and Ponsot’s wines are supposedly the poster children for this phenomenon. IIIRC, there was a similar reaction to Rene Leclerc’s 1999 Griotte-Chambertin and some vintages of de Vogue’s Musigny & Bonnes Mares in the late 1990’s in John Gilman’s newsletter. At the time, he thought theses wines were defective. More recently, other have found them quite delightful. The watchword for Burgundy should read “Timing is Everything!”
From what I’ve heard…Ponsot is almost always about the last to pick in Morey, which cause the wines to be pretty variable vintage to vintage. But '99 is thought to be a year where this gamble really paid off, especially in the case of the CdlR.
I’ve had the 99 cdlr several times over the last 5 years. Clearly holding a lot back but I’ve no doubt that a phenomenal wine will emerge in about another decade or so.
No grand crus for me but I have some morey alouettes in 99. Is there any reason at all to hope that this should require less patience than his grand crus? I bought them recently in the hope of having something to drink because I have too little mature wine in the cellar…
Lots of really good info above.
Never experienced a vintage like 99 that shut down SO hard and so fast once it occurred, and Ponsot’s wines shut down very early.
Having tasted through CSD, CDLR, and Griottes, I also believe each will be legendary. When?- I have no clue. IMO smaller premier crus from top producers are still rock hard.
Interesting vintage and maybe what Harry said above is happening, but I also hated the 95 and 6’s early on, like John Gilman.
This wine looked really good in a CdlR line-up we did last year. It needs another decade or two but should be quite brilliant when it i somewhere near its apogee.