Domaine Ponsot
| Domaine Ponsot | |
|---|---|
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| Location | Morey-Saint-Denis, France |
| Coordinates | 47°12′03″N 4°57′30″E / 47.200735°N 4.958385°E |
| Founded | 1872 (145 years ago) |
| First vintage | 1934 (83 years ago) |
| Key people | Laurent Ponsot |
| Cases/yr | Approximately 2500 |
| Known for | Clos de la Roche Cuvée Vieilles Vignes, Clos St. Denis Cuvée Très Vieilles Vignes, Morey-Saint-Denis Blanc 1er cru Clos des Monts Luisants |
| Varietals | Pinot noir, Aligoté |
| Website | http://www.domaine-ponsot.com |
Domaine Ponsot is a wine producer in Burgundy, France that produces white and red wine. They are best known for their Morey-Saint-Denis Blanc 1er cru Clos des Monts Luisants — the only premier cru Burgundy made entirely from Aligoté — and their flagship reds, the Clos de la Roche Cuvée Vieilles Vignes, and the Clos St. Denis Cuvée Très Vieilles Vignes. The domaine's wine was famously counterfeited in the wine auction scandal that resulted in Rudy Kurniawan's arrest.
Domaine Ponsot was founded in 1872 when William Ponsot's father purchased him a house and some vineyards in Morey-Saint-Denis, after William returned from serving in the Franco-Prussian War. A small amount of the domaine's wine was bottled by them at this time, mainly for private use and for the family's restaurants (they owned the franchise for all the station buffets in northern Italy at the time). When William died childless in 1926, the domaine was passed to William's nephew, Hippolyte Ponsot. At the time, the domaine's holdings included Clos des Monts Luisants, a vineyard founded by William and planted with Aligoté in 1911, and a parcel of Clos de la Roche. The domaine also cultivated fruit from other appellations, such as Les Charmes and Les Combottes in Gevrey-Chambertin. The planting of Aligoté was unusual at the time; most white wine production in Burgundy had leaned towards the more economically viable Chardonnay grape in the post-Phylloxera era.
The domaine began estate bottling in 1934; a rarity at the time, something only a dozen domaines did prior to World War II. They also began selling wine outside France, including to the United States, at this time. The first labels were hand-stamped and signed by Hippolyte, something he did by the fireplace in the days before television. During 1935 and 1935, Hippolyte was active in defining the Appellation d'origine contrôlée system in Burgundy, something his prior training as a lawyer and diplomat was useful in.
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