Description
RP (94-96) - The Wine Advocate - William Kelley
The 2022 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Cuvée Vieilles Vignes is a powerful wine, though comparatively speaking only a middleweight in the context of years such as 2018, 2019 and 2020, and it's more suave and integrated out of the gates than those vintages. Offering up deep aromas of ripe berry fruit mingled with baking spices, rose petals, orange zest and vine smoke, it's full-bodied, layered and velvety, with a fleshy core of fruit, supple tannins and a nicely cohesive finish.
Domaine Ponsot began picking red grapes on September 6, a comparatively early start for this historically late-harvesting domaine, producing a crop of powerful but charming wines that are less overtly broad shouldered than their 2018, 2019 and 2020 counterparts. As ever, complete destemming, minimal sulfites, and élevage in used barrels are the order of the day. The range also includes a Corton Grand Cru Cuvée du Bourdon that had just concluded a late malolactic when I visited and was consequently not entirely put together, and a Cuvée Hypolite, from the domaine's oldest vines planted in 1950s in their original historic parcel of Clos de la Roche, which is more brooding and deeper pitched than the regular cuvée.