(the aggregate size of this holding is a whopping 3.4 ha and Ponsot is easily the largest holder in Clos de la Roche) An even more complex nose offers up a mix of both high and medium-toned aromas of mostly red berries but with a panoply of background nuances including leather, tea, underbrush, spice hints, jerky and smoke, most of which transfer to the textured, intense and precise full-bodied flavors that are, somewhat surprisingly, not quite as dense but actually finer (normally it's the reverse), all wrapped in a hugely long and explosive finish that completely coats the palate with extract, indeed so much of it that this does not seem all that structured yet it will clearly need from 12 to 15 years to be at its best. A great Clos de la Roche.

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I consider 2007 a great vintage for us, Laurent Ponsot told me at the end of my first tasting session in Burgundy, but for others it's very mixed.My initial impressions were certainly extremely elevated and I think only at Sylvain Cathiard was I as excited by the quality across the board as here. This wonderful wine was extremely deep crimson and much more expressive than Ponsot's Chambertin. Really complex nose already - heady and such a panoply of flavours and nuances with great balance. This wine managed to be both tense and opulent - quite an achievement. Extremely fine tannins but ethereal too with an undertow of greatness. So clean and fresh this reverberated the length and breadth of the palate.

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Bacon fat, game, dark berries and decadent suggestions of faded lily and musky, nose-wrinkling narcissus scent the Ponsot 2007 Clos de La Roche Cuvee Vieilles Vignes. Reconvening on a finely-tannic, expansive palate, the game and smoked meat elements take precedence at least for now over the wines black fruits. But much of the sense of clarity and buoyancy as well as primary juiciness that rendered the corresponding Clos St.-Denis so thrilling return in the finish here, too, along with a persistently deep alliance of carnal and stony mineral elements. I would expect this to perform profoundly over the next two decades.

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This has density and a chewy quality to its macerated cherry, licorice, mineral and spice aromas and flavors. Elegant, firmly structured and well-integrated, with a long finish of spice and mineral. Not a flattering red, but soulful and expressive of place.

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