POMMARD

2016 1er Cru Épenots Domaine Nicolas Rossignol

EN PRIMEUR

50% Whole Bunch. Nico introduces this as 'Complet et Complexe' and you immediately see why. Some of his vines here are more than 110 years old. Others are being replaced with selection massale from these oldies. In the palate this is dense, dark and serious. Intense, complex and almost hard in the middle. But good and exciting. Brooding powerful. When will this open up. Seems so young, so tightly furled, but intriguing. Darker fruits, leather and cherry juice. Powerful, lots of matter and good density and broad-shouldered. L&S (Oct 2017)

* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.

(from both Grands and Petits Epenots; 50% whole clusters). Fresh and beautifully layered liqueur-like aromas are composed by notes of dark cherry, violet, earth and a whiff of lavender. The suave, super-rich and impressive dense big-bodied flavors possess both good muscle and a velvety mouth feel before concluding in a gorgeously long and balanced if firmly structured finish. This is knock-out good and the old vines definitely show. Drinking range: 2028 - Rating: 92-95 Allen Meadows, www.Burghound.com (Apr 2018)

The 2016 Pommard 1er Cru Les Epenots is a blend two vineyards, one 45 years old and the other 110 years old (the source of massale selection from 2017), which Nicolas describes as his grand cru. Living up to that claim, it sports a deliriously elegant bouquet with detailed blackcurrant, boysenberry and briary scents infused with minerals. The palate is very silky on the entry, the acidity well judged and with superb density without detracting from precision and poised. It leaves a chalky residue in the mouth and a sappiness that leaves you wanting more. This is an outstanding wine from Nicolas Rossignol. Drinking range: 2020 - 2040 Rating: 94-96 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Dec 2017)

Seductive aroma. Silky dark fruits and perfume. Gorgeous texture, river of silk. The inky depths, and it has excellent density, is woven with freshness and is very, long refined Pommard. Drinking range: 2022 - Rating: 18.95/19 Sarah Marsh MW, The Burgundy Briefing (Nov 2017)

Born in 1974, Nicolas represents the fifth generation of his family in Volnay (a village which seems to be populated almost entirely by families with Rossignol somewhere in the name). He started to make the wines of his 'Rossignol-Jeanniard' family domaine when he was just twenty.

After studies at the Lycée viticole in Beaune, he worked with Joseph Voillot in Volnay, who became a mentor to him, for Louis Latour at their estate in the Ardèche, and for Vieux Télégraphe on Châteauneuf, where he loved the combination of richness and elegance in the wines, which influenced the style of wines he would later want to make himself. He also made wine in Boschendal in South Africa, and for Château la Cardonne in Bordeaux (then managed by the Lafite team).

In 1997, Nico started his own domaine with three hectares of vines inherited from an uncle. After a period in which some of the wines he made were labelled 'Domaine Rossignol-Jeanniard', and some 'Domaine Nicolas Rossignol', he began to buy the fruit from his (Rossignol-Jeanniard) family, and label these simply 'Nicolas Rossignol' (without the 'domaine'). Now the vines (all 16 hectares) are finally in the 'Domaine Nicolas Rossignol', and labelled as such. To handle this sizeable domaine, Nico needed a new winery. Having started with a chaotic assemblage of tanks in a building in the village of Volnay, he had moved to share Ben Leroux's winery on the Beaune ring road, but Nico had dreams of his own place and built his impressive new winery in 2016. A fantastic bespoke build, admittedly in a ZI (Zone Industrielle) on the outskirts of Beaune, which he recognises is not ideal for the 'folklore' aspect, it is a perfect tool for the job, and does have a good view of all 'his' bits of the Côte - from a sort of eyrie on the roof.

Like many Burgundy domaines, the appellations have proliferated as the surface area of the vineyard has increased with lots of little (and some quite large) parcels of vines in Aloxe ('village'), Savigny ('village' and two Premiers Crus), Beaune (three Premiers Crus), Pernand ('village' and one Premier Cru), Pommard (three 'village' wines and six Premiers Crus) and Volnay ('village' and seven Premiers Crus). With two cuvées of Bourgogne Rouge, this adds up to twenty-eight different wines. Like Burgundy more generally, the joy of tasting here is recognising the individual character of each plot, modulated by the conditions of the vintage, of course, but each with their own distinct personality

The viticulture of the domaine is inspired by biodynamics, but Nico is pragmatic, and although no weedkillers are used and the vineyards are maintained by ploughing, he says that there are both good and bad things in biodynamics, and he will use conventional fungicides to combat disease. At harvest time the grapes are picked into eight kilo boxes, and transported to the winery in them to minimise handling. They are then carefully sorted, before either being de-stemmed (but with the berries left intact) before being put in the fermentation vat, or put in directly as whole bunches. Nico uses varying proportions of whole bunch fermentation depending on the type of wine each vineyard gives, and of course on the health and 'ripeness' of the stems. A classic fermentation using the natural yeats on the grapes ensues, with punchdowns (pigeage) and pumpovers (remontage) used to extract flavour from the grapes, or to oxygenate the wine and refine its structure - the amount used judged by tastings throughout the process. After the vatting the free-run juice is separated from the pressed juice - the latter being blended back as required if necessary after tasting. The wine is put into barrel by gravity (with the amount of new wood between 0 and 50%), and aged for between ten and twenty months depending on the wine and the vintage, always on the lees without racking. The wood and the amount of heat used in making the barrels is also modulated for each wine. The malolactic fermentation is delayed for six months to increase aromatic complexity and structure to the wines. At the end of the ageing the wines are racked and blended in tank, before bottling without fining or filtration.

Nicolas makes deeply-coloured, flavourful wines. He is always keen to rubbish the generalisation that Pommard makes structured 'masculine' wines, as opposed to Volnay's supposedly 'feminine' ones, and proves his point with Pommards grown on clay and Volnays like his punchily structured 'Ronceret'. Each wine is very site-specific.

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