2015 Château de Pommard ‘Simone’ Clos Marey-Monge Pinot Noir, Cotes de Beaune, Burgundy, France
Score: 93+/100
Simone is the flagship cuvée by Chateau de Pommard.
The winery and stunning Bugundy estate located, obviously in Pommard in the Cote de Beaune, and the biggest privately-held Monopole in Burgundy, was bought by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Michael Baum in 2014.
The new owner changed the Clos name, from Clos du Château de Pommard back to its original and historical name Clos de Marey Monge.
With his team, Michael Baum identified a half-hectare vineyard (1.2 acres) with a very distinctive clay-rich soil classified as première cuvée in Jules Lavalle’s 1855 analysis of Burgundy’s soils.
In 2009, Claude and Lydia Bourguignon proved Lavalle’s classification inaccurate and made a comprehensive scientific study confirming that Simone’s soils has one of the highest recorded clay densities in Burgundy, equal to a Grand Cru.
The ‘Simone’ vineyard, with its 100% Pinot Noir grapes, is taken care of with particular love and affection, horse-ploughing the soil, hand-picking the grapes, and barrel-aging Pinot Noir wine for an extended 22 to 28 months.
Overall Review Notes & Tasting Impressions
A truly stunning Pinot Noir wine with extreme pungency and power for the grape variety, especially out of Burgundy.
Intense flavors of dark cherry combine in a mind-blowing complexity with floral tones of violet, black olive, deep and dark spicy notes of clove, vanilla and caramel.
It is so concentrated in fact you are lost for words —at least I was— to describe it without sounding overly flattering or boring.
So many words and so many typical aromas of Pinot Noir are stuffed in this cuvee Simone, and with such a powerful intensity, it would take a page or two to describe it fully.
A wine to experience for yourself, rather than one to try to describe accurately with words in a long article.
Wine is for enjoying!
The takeaway is that this is a very smooth and insanely concentrated Pommard wine, packed-full with ripe fruity intensity, loads of sweet and lifted spices, together with the depth and caramelized complexity from a very subtly-integrated oak influence.
The warmth and opulence of the 2015 vintage clearly shows here, through big body for a Pinot Noir, plenty of tannins, a moderate acidity for the grape, yet massive bursts of dark ripe cherry and peppery notes.
Enjoy 🙂
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