Domaine de la Commaraine 1er Cru Pommard Clos de la Commaraine Monopole 2019 750ml
Domaine de la Commaraine 1er Cru Pommard Clos de la Commaraine Monopole 2019
Burgundy's New Blood - not to be missed!
Following on from their huge success of the resurrection of the bio dynamic Champagne house Leclerc Briant in 2012 in Epernay, Champagne, and the new-look Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa that overlooks the vineyard landscape north of Epernay, the American couple Mark Nunnelly and Denise Dupré, are now investing heavily in Burgundy. They are working closely with Jean-Luc Vitoux, a former lawyer from Champagne and now a Burgundy wine producer and négociant.
They purchased the Pommard 1er Cru Domaine de la Commaraine estate (10ha) in 2017, along with Domaine Belleville (22ha) in Burgundy’s Rully area. Further more they bought a high quality micro negociant business called 'Les Parcellaires de Saulx'
Louis-Michel Liger-Belair of Château de Vosne-Romanée is on board as consulting winemaker as of the 2018 vintage, working with full-time winemakers Charles Nébout and Isabelle Laurand.
Clos de la Commaraine is strictly terroir-led. The 3.7ha are now split into 10 plots, all harvested and vinified separately. The 2018 vintage is the first under this new regime, and was released in July 2020.
All plots are organic and biodynamic or under conversion. Only the best is used, with 40% off the wine being sold off anonymously under Pommard 1er Cru.
Reveiws:
16+/20 JancisRobinson.com
"Cask sample. Pale garnet. Remarkably ripe, sweet and heady on the nose. Sweet front palate and then sufficient acidity but surprisingly light in tannin for a premier cru Pommard. If tasting this blind, I'd be more likely to take this for a Volnay, it's so light-bodied and low in tannin. I'm sure everything will be thrown at this wine now that it is owned by the same owners as Leclerc Briant in Champagne. (This is their second vintage.) Lightly chalky but definitely fresh finish."
Producer Dom de la Commaraine
Cuvée Clos de la Commaraine
Classification Premier Cru
Appellation Pommard
Region Burgundy
Country France
Colour Red
Score 16 +
When to drink 2022 – 2034
Published on 5 Jan 2021
Date tasted 23 Dec 2020
Reviewer Jancis Robinson
(91-93)/100 The Wine Advocate, Reviewed by William Kelley, January 2020 Week 2, The Wine Advocate
"The 2019 Pommard 1er Cru Clos de la Commaraine Monopole has turned out nicely, wafting from the glass with aromas of sweet berries, plums, exotic spices, raw cocoa, orange rind and peonies. Medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, it's supple and succulent, with melting tannins and a pretty core of fruit. This is a charming, immediate and open-knit Pommard that subverts dated stereotypes of the appellation...
The purchase of the Clos de la Commaraine by Americans Denise Dupré and Mark Nunelly made headlines recently, so this visit with estate director Jean-Luc Vitoux, winemaker Charles Nebout and consultant Louis-Michel Liger-Belair. Long the property of Jaboulet-Vercherre, the fruit of this beautifully situated 3.75-hectare monopole has been sold to Louis Jadot since the 2002 vintage, but now ambitious plans are underfoot. This large, walled vineyard, insulated from outside influences, is ideally suited to organic and biodynamic farming—and will be now be worked accordingly. And Liger-Belair's longtime collaborator, soil scientist and geologist Pedro Parra, has visited to study the clos, which has now been divided into eight sub-plots along geological lines; plots that will be farmed and vinified separately. The 2018 vintage certainly bears Liger-Belair's signatures, with its supple tannins, delicate extraction and framing of toasty new oak, and the wine has turned out very well. I also had the opportunity to visit the château itself, for which there are similarly ambitious plans for a boutique hotel with swimming pool, spa and restaurant. The location is certainly idyllic, even if the scale of the renovation work is daunting, and there's no doubt that the development, when realized, will transform the sleepy village of Pommard."
