On Tuesday night we had a dinner with Laurent Ponsot held in a private room at the fabulous Square restaurant. He show cased a vertical of his spectacular Clos de la Roche as well as a few delicious whites.
On arrival we had a glass of 2011 St. Romain Blanc de la Mesange, this was a huge surprise and everyone amazed that St. Romain could produce wines of such high quality.
We then sat down for a small tasting before dinner. It was a line-up of Clos de la Roche, starting with 2012 which had lovely red fruits, very typical of the vintage. Then the 2011, it has a really smoky character but great grip and intensity. However the final wine in the line-up was the magnificent 2010, this had huge depth and power and a wine that will only be hitting its stride in a decade or 2 but I’m sure it will be worth the wait.
With dinner, we kicked off with 2011 Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Clos des Mont Luisants, this was served in Magnum and was absolutely delicious. It was very elegant with lovely mineral grip. This wine is made from 100% Aligoté and the vines are only 100 years old!
We then drank 3 pairs of Clos de la Roche, the first pairing was 2002 which was big and broad, fine red fruits but way too young but it will be amazing one day, the 2001 was so different in style but ready to drink with lovely mineral character a classic 2001 this is such an underrated vintage.
We then had 2000 which had lovely soft red berried fruit and again a huge surprise from a vintage which is now really stepping into its stride, followed by 2007 which was magnificent, drinking beautifully now with lots of secondary flavours so absolutely in its prime.
The final pairing was 1999 and 1998. The 1999 was a dark animal and brooding, such a classic vintage. The 1998 is much purer in style, really delicious and still loads of life ahead of it.
After all that, we finished off with 2011 Corton Charlemagne in Magnum seriously good and wonderful with the cheese.
