1993 Morey St Denis Cuvee des Allouettes

In 1993 Ponsot produced a Morey St.-Denis Cuvee Alouettes. This is his declassified Clos de la Roche made from young vines - i.e., anything younger than 19 years! It is an outstanding wine that would embarrass much of what was made by other producers in 1993. It boasts a huge, complex nose of earth, smoke, jammy black-cherries, and herbs. Full-bodied, rich, dense, and concentrated, this large-scaled wine should age well for 15 or more years. While I am a great believer that low yielding, highly concentrated Pinot Noir deserves plenty of toasty new oak, there is not one new oak barrel to be found in Ponsot's cellar. The average age of the barrels is between 30-60 years, thus proving that there is at least one exception to the rule that the greatest red Burgundies are kept in new oak casks! Note: Ponsot also makes and bottles wines for the Domaine des Chezeaux. The good news is that Ponsot's 1993s are spectacular wines, as stunning as his prodigious 1990s. The bad news is that his yields were minuscule, with the average for all his vineyards approximately 20 hectoliters per hectare, or just over one ton per acre. For some of the grand crus, yields were so tiny that the number of cases that will make it to America is preposterously low. For example, yields for the Clos St.-Denis vineyard were 8 hectoliters per hectare, for Clos de la Roche, 18 hectoliters per hectare, and for Griotte-Chambertin, 23 hectoliters per hectare. Laurent Ponsot stated that only 48 bottles of Chambertin were allocated to America, 24 bottles of Clos St.-Denis (only 400 bottles were produced), and less than 30 cases of Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes. It is not that the United States is getting screwed in the allocation system, but just that so little wine was produced. My reviews are, therefore, largely of academic interest. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Chester, VT; tel. (802) 875-2139