Ponsot Charmes Chambertin Cuvee des Merles Grand Cru 2007 750ml

Wine Advocate #189, Jun 29, 2010 by David Schildknecht
Cherry, red currant and blond tobacco inform the nose and bright, firm palate of Ponsot’s 2007 Charmes-Chambertin Cuvee des Merles. Clean underlying meatiness adds depth here, although a faintly raspy streak of tannin persists in the otherwise exuberantly juicy and impressively persistent finish. It will be interesting to see whether this picks up greater complexity and/or polish with time, and I would be inclined to want to revisit it in a few years before rendering any prognostication for longer term aging. I tasted this - like his other 2007s and 2008s - in Ponsot’s company, and was thus able to assure myself that the bit of roughness was not bottle-specific.

At Domaine Ponsot wine is produced out of fashion. These choices are not dictated by a sort of occult resulting from what is now called the "non-interventionism." Instead, it is much more difficult to resist, even though human, correct individual defects occurring during aging of wines, or to act upstream of the culture of the vine to standardize quality and guard against the vagaries of climate. At Domaine Ponsot they love wine. They love it because it is alive.
The philosophy of field Ponsot have three types of viticulture that are pest management, organic farming and biodynamics are all based on a negative conclusion: the man went too far in its quest for profitability and is not worried about the future of the vine. And it is a reality they have no doubt. Domaine Ponsot, this concern or rather this approach with respect for nature is very old. It is a reflection of all the so-called "peasant" based on common sense tradition. And all generations since the founding of the area in 1872 agreed with this love of nature and therefore it is observed. And all that is preached today in patterns of three ways to work mentioned above is implemented for ages at Domaine Ponsot, but are not obliged to invent a name to describe the operation of culture. Far modes, they have always tried to express through a "natural" cultural richness of the Burgundian. Human intervention is limited and only applied to the care that the vine needs, without ever trying to force him into anything In summary, the long tradition of their family in this light left to Nature the most part, today brings them a particularly good state of their vineyard. And any intervention on their part is dictated by circumstances and appeals to common sense on the one hand and the more natural the other products. What they do is always rediscovered today by the majority of technicians and hence it has been necessary to invent names to describe practical yet well known ... There are hundreds of years!

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