Domaine Ponsot’s Clos de la Roche Vielles Vignes is easily one of the benchmark grand crus of the Côte de Nuits, and arguably one of the icons: an example of a domaine being almost synonymous with the vineyard.  To quote Jasper Morris MW: “If certain great vineyards in Burgundy can be said to have a defining vigneron – Rousseau in Chambertin, for example – then Ponsot is the domaine for Clos de la Roche”.  

The domaine’s holdings in Clos de la Roche are in two blocks: the largest lies in the original Clos, the second, which makes up roughly one third of the blend, lies higher up the slope in the Clos des Mont-Luisants. The vines are 65 years old, planted at 11,000 vines per hectare, on lean clay and limestone soil.  Average yearly production is roughly 850 dozen.