The 2008 Clos de la Roche Cuvée Vieilles Vignes is a silky, elegant wine. Freshly cut roses, dark red fruit and minerals sit on a core of utterly refined tannins. This shows stunning balance in a weightless style that gains energy on the clean, focused finish. This is a fabulous effort from Ponsot.

Violet, peony, and decadent lily render the Ponsot 2008 Clos de La Roche Cuvee Vieilles Vignes even more intriguingly floral than its Clos St.-Denis counterpart, and the same goes for the wine’s subtly gamy aura. At the same time, clean red meat juices; brown spice-tinged fresh plum and blackberry juices; and chalky as well as stony underlying elements combine for a profound sense of layering, culminating in a finish of prodigious reach that tugs relentlessly at my salivary glands. Here is one of those exhibitions of richness with vivacity, bright penetration with textural refinement that is almost uniquely possible with the very best Burgundy Pinots of its unusual vintage. (Even Ponsot’s profusely and dramatically floral all-Aligote 2008 Mont Luisants blanc has nothing in the department of blossoms on this Clos de la Roche!) Look for a quarter-century’s worth of profound experiences if you are wealthy, lucky, and young enough for at admonition to apply. I asked Laurent Ponsot what he though were the critical factors in avoiding the prevalent pink, under-ripe grapes scattered within the clusters of 2008 vintage Pinot Noir, whose undesirable flavors were bound to have concentrated under the influence of late September wind right along with those of the properly ripe berries. “First of all,” he replied, “you had to prune correctly, which is the beginning of everything – like being in front of a piece of wood or stone as a sculptor and beginning to carve a statue. It’s artistic – not simply something that will determine how many grapes (you end up with). After that, you focus on working with and not in opposition to nature’s cycle. Why are we always the last in Burgundy to pick their grapes? It’s because we pick on time.” In the case of 2008, that meant commencing on the eighth of October; and Ponsot’s 2007s – which taste as though they must come from a completely unfamiliar not to mention remarkably great vintage – were not picked until after the middle of September. “I wasn’t sure in early tastings,” says Ponsot about his 2008s, “that all of the elements would fit together into something harmonious.” For the most part, though, they have – at least, based on my tastings from a range of barrels in late winter. With regard to the distinctively delicious and atypical personality I discovered in Ponsot’s 2007s, readers should bear in mind that he employs some of the lowest levels of sulfur in Burgundy, so there’s no pepping-up going on here by means of dosage, which is seldom employed at all! I couldn’t help thinking as I tasted them: was this much excitement really implicit in 2007 generally and somehow the opportunity to capture it was missed at more than 90% of the addresses where I taste? Incidentally, the big news at Domaine Ponsot last year – although, Laurent Ponsot’s choice of synthetic closures for future bottlings and his remorseless pursuit of forgers and security justifiably made headlines – was that there will be Corton, Corton-Bressandes, and Corton-Charlemagne here beginning with vintage 2009. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802

Tasted at Flint Wine’s 2008 horizontal in London. This has a very natural bouquet with redcurrant, cranberry leaf, crushed rose petals and a puff of chalk dust. The palate is medium-bodied with a sweet entry: orange zest, a touch of spice and a hint of peach. Very fresh and "playful"; crisp and generous on the finish. Lovely to drink now but will keep. Tasted February 2011.