Red currant, lingonberry, and rose hip scent and surprisingly brightly flavor the Ponsot 2007 Chambolle-Musigny Cuvee des Cigales, while a veritable halo of high-toned green tea, kirsch, and generally distilled red fruits in the nose, transforms itself into a swirling inner-mouth volatility that strikingly compliments the wine’s sheer juiciness. A clean, strikingly vivid, marrow-rich underlying meatiness adds depth and persists into an otherwise bright; penetrating; peat-, chalk-, salt- and fruit pit-tinged; saliva-including finish. This tres-Chambolle but very un-2007 Pinot is one of those that make you ask “how can something like this come from grapes?” And the intrigue is sure to remain for at least the better part of a decade. But to be honest, Ponsot’s 2007s are so singular – not only in the context of their vintage – that I hesitate to handicap them. 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