When you walk into a room, a converted cellar; there’s French language and accents hanging in the air; wine from Burgundy flowing generously and a tasting menu before you like you’ve never seen, you know Chateau de Pommard’s in town.
Château de Pommard Wine Advisors Olivier Bouchard and Amicie de Saint Léger travel France and the UK, hosting tasting events and under-the-skin journeys of the Pommard label to educate and bring to life the beauty behind every bottle of wine from the mid-France region.
An acclaimed UNESCO-protected World Heritage Climats of Burgundy – regions with very defined parameters that benefit from particular climactic conditions, the experience that’s formulated in France is one-of-a-kind. It’s been built to allow customers and wine drinkers the chance to compare the multiple expressions of wines from the Chateau, learn about their production and why it’s so.
In the tastings, Olivier walks wine lovers, writers, students and aficionados through the world of Pommard. From an introduction to the Chateau, how it operates and the story behind the rich American who bought it a few years ago, it’s steeped in history, all of which comes through in each bottle.
Working from light to dark, such Pommard wines like the Famille Carabello-Baum Meursault 2017 a light, aromatic, and stars super notes of fresh yellow flowers, chamomile, lemon, and pear, along with hints of wet stones.
Olivier goes to describe the overall body of the wine in such detailed notes with flavours of butter, cream, vanilla and lemon zest. The body is full, with a generous, creamy texture on the palate.
With each bottle, a bit of its back story comes to light, like the fact the wine spends 16 months on lees in 20% new French oak barrels and that it’s made for gastronomy as well as drinking alone. It all adds to the story of Chateau de Pommard, that extends well into the whole range.
The Pommard range is extensive, too. Covering whites to reds, the Chateau is renowned for its excellent take on Echezeaux Grand Cru from 2017 for example, which is one of the oldest Grand Cru of Côte de Nuits. Its deep soils of pebbles, silt, and marl produce an intense and complex Pinot Noir with very long ageing potential. It’s an elegant, complex and energetic red wine; on the nose, intense aromas of wild strawberries, peonies, and saffron appear, as well as notes of animality and sandalwood, while palate reveals perfectly integrated mellow tannins; the finish is long, underlined with notes of fruits, flowers, and spices. With a great ageing potential, this grand wine will reach its full potential in several years.
For more information about Chateau de Pommard, head to their website or go directly to the Chateau – it’s open to visitors! For more on tastings like these, get a flavour for them at the tasting website.