Wine of the Day • 13 October 2020

Laurent Ponsot Gevrey-Chambertin Cuvée de l’Aulne 2016

Laurent Ponsot is “a man of focus, commitment, and sheer will” if I may borrow the famous expression from the John Wick movies. Wine lovers owe the Frenchman a great debt. Fraudsters, on the other hand, have a lot to fear of the “Wine Warrior”. Just ask Rudy Kurniawan who in 2013 was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for selling fake wines. Incarcerated in a Texas prison, Inmate #62470-112 may be released as early as next month –  7 November 2020 – if found to have been on good behaviour. In 2008, the “Grape Crusader” famously flew to New York to interrupt an Acker Merrall & Condit auction because Domaine Ponsot Clos St Denis 1945 could not possibly be the real thing since Ponsot’s family did not produce a wine from that vineyard until 1982. Laurent Ponsot’s evidence at the December 2013 New York trial helped convict the Indonesian. In 2017, Ponsot left his family domaine and created his own eponymous brand. The focus on the future is very evident in the Nasalization typeface adopted by Laurent Ponsot. If 2001 Space Odyssey also comes to mind, “odyssey” would indeed be a good description for the life journey the Frenchman has undertaken. And continues to undergo. Cuvée de l’Aulne 2016 has delicious, intense raspberry fruit and rich, ripe tannins smoother than a ride in a Bentley. Wonderful freshness and exemplary harmony of fruit, lift and caressing structure. Masterly winemaking.

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