Elegant and age-worthy, François Gaunoux’s Pommard Les Épenots is built for the long haul. Intense yet graceful, this ’96 wafts with red and blue fruits, crushed violet petals, sun-warmed earth, licorice, smoke, and underbrush. Decades of maturity have tamed this wine’s tannins, helped it mellow, and gain tertiary notes, but its structure means that this ’96 will be drinking for years to come. Deriving from the domaine’s still, flat, and sunny Les Épenots plot, the grapes for this wine ferment for about three weeks in temperature-controlled vats, and then the wine ages for about 18 months before bottling.
- Country: France
- Region: Burgundy
- Subregion/Classification: Côte de Beaune
- Commune/Village: Pommard
The eighty-year-old Gaunoux, who runs his small estate with his daughter Claudine, is one of those vignerons who doesn't let critics into his cellar, doesn't give tastes out of his barrel and doesn't let just anyone buy his cult-inspiring wines. He's the head of a winemaking family who isn't in it for profit; they're in it to stay true to their regional roots. Domaine François Gaunoux, just ten hectares in the heart of Beaune and Meursault, farms its grapes by hand; Claudine says that she likes her vines to "look like a garden." Contrary to expectation, father François is the one who favors technological innovation--he's installed temperature-controlled vats for fermentation; however, daughter Claudine hews close to traditional methods, choosing minimal racking, limited oak, and emphasizing the fruit and terroir. The result is wine that's revelatory: dense, palate coating, resplendent with flavor, and absolutely imbued with Burgundy terroir.
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