(the aggregate size of this holding is a whopping 3.4 ha and Ponsot is easily the largest holder in Clos de la Roche) In contrast to the reduced nose of the Alouettes, the aromas are fresh, even bright with seductive and enveloping spicy and earthy black pinot fruit that complements to perfection the textured, serious and hugely deep full-bodied flavors that completely drench the palate with extract such that the tannins are rendered almost invisible and conferring a very suave character to the balanced and equally long finish. But here there is even more depth and power and while this won't make anyone forget the 2005, it's a worthy successor.

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Good full ruby-red. Incredible nose melds wild cherry, mocha, brown spices, iron, orange peel and underbrush. Like liquid silk on entry, then hugely concentrated in the middle, with an extraordinarily fine-grained texture and no easy sweetness. Impeccably balanced, soil-driven wine that finishes with noble tannins and great persistence. This is Clos de la Roche, not pinot. As of November, one of the most promising wines of this stealth vintage.

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Sweetly ripe black fruits in the nose of the Ponsot 2006 Clos de La Roche Cuvee Vieilles Vignes prepare the way for a more succulently, generously sweet fruit, plush texture, and generally sunny disposition than that presented by the corresponding Clos St.-Denis. Ripe cherry and red currant flood the creamy, silken palate with sweetness, while some of the same notes of citrus oil, floral perfume (here iris), and peat as exhibited in the Clos St.-Denis swirl about, too. Saline, chalky suggestions help offer contrast and a sounding board to the fruit, and this finishes with exhilarating lift, riveting interplay, and phenomenal length. Here is a combination of textural allure and backbone for which velvet gloves and iron fists seem inappropriately mundane ' not merely archaic ' metaphors. Blind ' I must confess (and did, to Ponsot) ' that I would more likely have guessed this to be Musigny than Clos de la Roche. In an extreme instance of a phenomenon shared by many of the best 2006s, I find this irresistible now; find it hard to imagine its having ornery or sulking phases; yet expect it will be worth following for 20 years.

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