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THE DOMAINE PONSOT PHILOSOPHY

The three types of viticulture explored above, namely sustainable practices, organic agriculture and biodynamic farming, are all based on a negative observation: humans have gone too far in their quest for profitability and have not been sufficiently concerned about the future of the vine. And this is no doubt true.
At Domaine Ponsot, this concern or rather this process of respecting Nature is very ancient. It is the embodiment of the so-called "peasant" tradition based on common sense. And every generation since the foundation of the Domaine in 1872 has subscribed to this Love of Nature and, by the same token, its respect. And everything that is advocated today in the three ways of working described above has been applied at Domaine Ponsot since its earliest days, without needing to invent a name for it. 

Unfettered by the latest fashions, we have always sought to express the richness of Burgundy terroir through "natural" cultivation practices. Human intervention is limited and only applied to the help that the vine needs, without ever trying to force it in any way. Of course, this way of working is only possible with full knowledge of the facts, and current technology allows us to check the state of the soil, vegetation and maturity as never before. And we make full use of what it has to offer. In summary, our family's long tradition of letting Nature do most of the work means that today the conditions of our vineyards are particularly good. And every intervention on our part is dictated by circumstance, in which both common sense and the most natural products possible are the order of the day. What we have always been doing is now being advocated by most technicians and names invented to describe practices that were already well-known … several thousand years ago!

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History

William Ponsot established the Domaine in 1772 after the Prussian war. It was not until after the 19th century, however, that the Domaine began to take its present form under the influence of Jean-Marie’s uncle who had 7.4 acres of vineyards but no children. When his nephew, Jean-Marie’s father, took over in 1922, the inheritance had become only 2.47 acres. By the time Jean-Marie started working in 1949, land purchases had increased holdings to 14.8 acres. He added 6.4 acres in 1957, located in Morey, Gevrey and Chambolle.

 

 

 

 

 

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Vineyards

From sustainable practices to biodynamic growing...
 In order to move towards practices that are more environmentally friendly and return to a true expression of the terroir (which should be reinstated as one of the AOC themes), many wine estates are debating the issues of sustainable management in vineyards and organic farming. We will examine three different types of viticulture here :

 

SUSTAINABLE PRACTICESKnown as "la lutte raisonnée" in French which translates as 'measured control', this is the first phase before full-scale organic viticulture. Unlike conventional agriculture (high yields, prolific use of chemical treatments and products to prevent diseases and predators) which produces an "assisted" and productive vine stock, sustainable viticulture uses chemicals in a limited and measured way and sets additional constraints to general regulations such as :

 

Restrictive specifications
Preservation of the farming environment
Soil and fertilisation management
Upkeep of wine-producing land
Limitation of inputs with measured use of plant protection and oenological products
Effluent reduction and waste management
Traceability and testing
Sustainability and improvement of the farm or estate's performance

 

ORGANIC FARMING
Organic viticulture, so often derided in the past, is gaining increasing ground, thanks to the many advantages it offers. Because pesticides and chemical fertilisers are not permitted, the vine produces a grape of great quality that reflects the typical characteristics of its terroir. There is a biological balance in nature and life is present at all levels. Organic agriculture takes this balance and life into account, preserving them as far as possible. Organic wine producers undertake to use products that are free from synthetically produced chemicals. In the vineyard, they use raw materials of natural origin (copper, sulphur, plant-based insecticides) and work to promote natural pest control between species. Their aim is to encourage life in the soil and the preservation of animal and plant species, thus protecting the natural ecosystem.

In practice, this means letting grass grow which will aerate the soil, feed earthworms and compete with the vine stocks that will have to put down longer roots to reach the resources they need, in soil with a higher mineral salt content that is more representative of the terroir. It should not be forgotten that organic farming has a cost: additional labour, cleaner but more expensive plant treatment preparations, greater risk-taking in terms of vine diseases and therefore lower productivity which usually means lower yields.



BIODYNAMIC FARMING
 
Biodynamic farming is the extreme version of organic agriculture. Not only do winegrowers do everything they can to preserve nature, they also start from the principle that the damage already inflicted is so great that humans must do everything they can to restore this lost balance, including using the influence of terrestrial and cosmic rhythms. The vineyard is considered to be a living entity and a natural balance must be maintained between the four elements of earth, water, air and fire, in other words, the sun. Biodynamic viticulture uses the positions of the stars and planets in conjunction with seasonal cycles to determine exactly when which treatments should be applied. The latter are all completely organic and some are more than a little mystical, such as the burial of a cow's horn filled with dung.
This unconventional way of doing things may sometimes raise a smile, but the success of some of its proponents should be sufficient to pique our interest.



 

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Winemaking

At Domaine Ponsot we produce wines uninfluenced by fashion. These choice are not dictated by a kind of occultism resulting from what today is known as "non-interventionism". On the contrary, it is much more difficult to resist the temptation, however human it may be, to correct such and such a defect appearing during the maturation of the wine, or to take action earlier in the process and modify vine cultivation in order to standardise quality and protect against climatic hazards. We love Wine. We love it because it's alive.


To love it for the happiness and pleasure it brings, we are willing to put up with its bad moods, its absences and its weaknesses. We live in an impatient world, and fashion encourages us to gratify those immediate desires imposed on us through the media and through profitability.


Swimming against the tide has never been easy. When it happens in sport, the media are only too happy to commend it. When it comes to food and wine, it would appear that some critics prefer to keep your head firmly under the water… It is often the case that our wines are inaccessible for a certain period of time, and only show themselves after a long and ungrateful adolescence, revealing a sensual and elegant being when they reach maturity. We respect the consumer and will not therefore sell any wine that does not fulfil the expectations of its appellation and its vintage. We would either send it to the distillery (as we did for the Morey Clos des Monts Luisants 1993 and 2012), or we would declassify it and reduce the price (as we did for practically all wines in the 1994 vintage).

Our wines are aged in oak barrels for two years. We never use new barrels. This is because the natural ageing cycles of wines from Burgundy grape varieties are slow and require careful handling. With new wood, which is still very porous, the exchange with the outside of the barrel takes place too quickly. In addition, the taste of oak, even if natural in principle, is not original and is neither a feature of the terroir nor the grapes. We produce WINE and not wine- and oak-based drinks… We generally rack once, if possible a long time after the second fermentation is finished, and sometimes the wine is bottled without racking (2003 for example). Racking and bottling are always carried out under a waning moon and high atmospheric pressure.

Our wines are neither fined nor filtered and we use very little sulphur. Regarding SO2, we use it as an antiseptic on the grapes when they are crushed and vatted. With the alcoholic fermentation, the sulphur dioxide almost completely disappears. To limit its use, the wine must not be exposed to oxygen. We therefore make sure that we fill our barrels as often as necessary. During the racking and bottling phases, the wines are not in contact with the air at any time as we use nitrogen or carbon dioxide, or a blend of these two neutral gases.

 

Using these heavier-than-air gases is very easy and we now have more than 20 years' experience in this area, starting our first experiments in 1984 and stopping the systematic use of SO2 from the 1988 vintage onwards. Furthermore, we believe that the elements that make up the wine, provided that nothing has been done to remove them, are sufficient to ensure natural protection against most forms of contamination.

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Inside information

1872  - Originally from St Romain in Côte d'Or, William Ponsot purchased a wine estate in Morey-St-Denis and set up home there. His major parcels of land at that time were :

  • Clos des Monts-Luisants 
  • Clos de la Roche
  • Gevrey-Chambertin Les Combottes
  • Charmes Chambertin


1920  - His nephew and godson, Hippolyte Ponsot, took over the Domaine after completing his career as a diplomat. With the help of his brother, Henri Ponsot, who was also a diplomat (resident consul general in Morocco and ambassador of France in several countries), Hippolyte Ponsot substantially increased the size of Clos de la Roche by purchasing ¾ of the original "Clos de la Roche" lieu-dit.


1932  - He started bottling his entire harvest at the Domaine. This was very rare at the time and only a dozen or so Burgundy wine estates did so before the Second World War.

The 1934 vintage was the first to be sold in France, with sales in the United States and numerous other European countries.


1935  - A lawyer by training, Hippolyte Ponsot was one of the founders of the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) classification for Burgundy wines in 1935 and 1936.

1942  - Jean-Marie Ponsot, his son, farmed the vineyards and made wine in collaboration with him. Hippolyte retired in 1957.

In the early 1960s.

Many of the most respected clones of Pinot Noir (113, 114, 115, 667, etc.) came from the mother-stock planted in 1954 (and still in production) in our Clos de la Roche vineyards.


1961  - Jean-Marie Ponsot started to farm the following parcels under amétayage agreement (returning a share of the bottled harvest to the owners of the vineyard as payment) :

  • Chambolle-Musigny, 
  • Chambertin, 
  • Latricières-Chambertin

1972  - Jacqueline Ponsot Livera, his wife, added to the estate through her inheritance of the following parcels :

  • Gevrey Chambertin Cuvée de l’Abeille,
  • Chapelle Chambertin
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  • 1975  - The Domaine was incorporated as a landholding company with Jean-Marie Ponsot, Jacqueline Ponsot Livera, Abbot Denis Ponsot and Marie-Antoinette Ponsot as principals.


1981  - Laurent Ponsot started working with his father Jean-Marie on the family estate and became its manager together with his sister Rose-Marie Ponsot.

He set up a new sales system, diversifying the sale of all bottled production to 44 countries. He farms the vineyards and makes wine with an emphasis on total authenticity.


1982  - Addition of several parcels from the Domaine des Chezeaux under a métayage agreement :

  • Griotte Chambertin, grand cru AOC, red.
  • Chambertin, grand cru AOC, red.
  • Clos St Denis Cuvée Vieilles Vignes, grand cru AOC, red.
  • Chambolle-Musigny Les Charmes, premier cru AOC, red.


1989  - Domaine Ponsot was filed as a registered trademark

2001  - New appellation purchased :

  • Bourgogne Cuvée du Pinson, regional AOC, red.


2002  - New appellations through purchases and joint venture agreements :

  • Chambolle-Musigny Cuvée des Cigales, village AOC, red. 
  • Charmes Chambertin, grand cru AOC, red.
  • Clos de Vougeot Cuvée Vieilles Vignes, grand cru AOC, red.


2009  - New appellations through joint venture agreements :

  • Corton Charlemagne, grand cru AOC, white.
  • Corton Cuvée du Bourdon, grand cru AOC, red.
  • Corton Bressandes, grand cru AOC, red.
  • Chambertin Clos de Bèze, grand cru AOC, red.


2010  - New appellation through joint venture agreement: :

  • Montrachet, grand cru AOC, white.


2011  - New appellation through joint venture agreement :

Saint Romain Cuvée de la Mésange, village AOC, white.

Today, the estate continues to be an entirely family-run business, its various entities being owned by Laurent Ponsot and his sisters, Rose-Marie, Catherine and Stéphanie Ponsot.

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17 different wines with 130 vintages

Winemaking since 1972

  • Robert Parker, Jr.

    “At their finest, Ponsot’s wines are classic examples of great red burgundy. While rich and accessible enough to be drunk young, they are capable of lasting 20-30 years, making Ponsot one of a handful of Burgundy growers committed to making long-lived wines.”
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