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Type
White Wine

Jean-Baptiste Ponsot Rully 1er Cru 'Montpalais' 2020

Appellation
Rully 1er Cru
Region
Cote Chalonnaise
Vintage
2020
12 In Stock
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$64.00
 
SKU: EPON03W-20
Overview

Gun-flint smoky minerality drives this ripe, old-vine fruit and elegant white flower complexity to great lengths.  Extremely long finish, and the hallmark tension, even in old vine depth. Aging 12 months in barrels (20% of new oak barrels) and 3 months of assembly in mass.

Winemaker
Vintage

BURGUNDY 2020

With so many winemakers finishing their 2020 harvest before the end of August, everyone here in Burgundy expected that this hot, sunny vintage would produce atypical wines, overripe, fat and flabby. Why it did not is a mystery to this day.

In fact, 2020 Burgundy, both red and white, is being lauded by the Press and professionals alike as an exceptional vintage, brilliantly fresh, pure, elegant and focused. Yes, the wines are ripe and concentrated, but there is good acidity that more than brings things into balance. This, in fact, defines the Burgundy 2020 style: high acidity and high concentration.

So let’s look, as we do every year, at how the growing season developed, to try to get some idea of what shaped these unexpectedly energetic wines.

In a word, from start to finish, 2020 was precocious. After a mild and humid winter, the vegetative cycle started a month early under sunny skies, with bud burst in mid-April and the first Chardonnay flowers in early May. Then the weather deteriorated. Pinot Noir flowered in cool, damp conditions, and was less successful than Chardonnay, explaining the smaller Pinot crop.

From that point on, there is not much to report weatherwise. It was hot and dry from June through to the end, the driest year since 1945. The grapes started to change color in mid-July, and harvest in August seemed likely.

Now you may think that an August harvest lets everyone get their jobs done and go home early. But remember that there is a big difference between the heat and luminosity of an August afternoon and the cooler, shorter days of September. When maturity comes galloping at you in August, you have to react quickly; a day or two can mean considerable differences in acid and sugar levels.

Indeed, there may have been more stress on the winemakers than there was on the vines. 2020 was in fact an easy growing season, dry, with little risk of fungal problems. The tough part was deciding when to harvest. Do you put off harvesting to try to get to phenolic maturity, or do you pick sooner to keep acid levels up and to avoid higher alcohol levels?

Many opted to pick early. And for the most part, it proved to be the right decision…though we still do not understand why! 

Many 2020 wines have alcohol levels of 13%-14%, but many are higher. Delaying picking increased the potential alcohol levels by as much as a degree a week.

At the same time, good levels of phenolic maturity gave ripe, but not overripe tannins. Some call the 2020s ‘crunchy’, which is a tannin level riper than ‘green’ but less than ‘fine’.

Total acidity was generally high, but most of that was tartaric acid. Malic acid, which would normally make up a big percentage of the total acidity, was low. In fact, the wines changed very little during malolactic fermentation, as there was little malic acid to transform into lactic acid.

So, again, we have a vintage that is characterized by high acidity and concentrated fruit. Some are saying that there has never before been a vintage where ripeness and acidity combined to give such brilliant wines with great aging potential. And this is true for both red and white. Freshness, balance, moderate alcohol.

The whites are rich and ripe, but with a crystalline, almost razor-sharp edge. That little touch of lactic acid makes them complex without adding weight.

The reds might bear a resemblance to past vintages.  2005, maybe. But they made wine differently in 2005. Back then, extraction was the goal: get as much out of the ripeness as you could. Today, Pinot is not so much ‘extracted’ as ‘infused’, like tea. This gives wines that are fresher and more energetic, with no less intensity and maybe more spice.

Drink them now, both red and white. There is astounding vitality in the youthful 2020s. But stick to the regional appellations for now because this is above all a vintage for aging, again both red and white. Keep the premier and grand crus for 10-15 years; longer for the best wines.  They have the balance to age, and will reveal little by little the complexity that we just get hints of today. These are wines that may shut down for a few years in a few years, that’s to be expected. But be patient; you will be overjoyed to pull 2020 Burgundy from your cellar down the line.

But even just that little touch of lactic acid made the complexity of the whites.

Appellation

RULLY

COTE CHALONNAISE

The village of Rully is situated at the extreme northern end of the department of the Saone et Loire. But tasting the wine it produces, you would think you are still in the Cote d'Or. 15 km from Chalon sur Saone and the wine production zone around the village of Mercurey, south west of Maranges and in the sphere of Chagny, Rully sits at the foot of the Montagne de la Folie, a limestone ridge running north to south and dividing the village from neighboring appellation Bouzeron.

Produced in the communes of Rully and Chagny, appellation Rully includes 23 premiers crus.

Wine

Rully white is gold flecked with green, and deepens with age. It should be very floral with notes of hedgerow flowers (acacia, may, honeysuckle and elderflower) as well as lemon acidity, and ripe peach fleshiness on smoky flint minerality. There are several very serious sections of white wine production in the village. Time brings out honey, quince, and dried fruits. These wines should be full of lively round fruit.

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Reds should be ruby through to black cherry with a bouquet of black fruits (blackcurrant, blackberry and black cherry) plus liquorice and perfumed floral notes. On the palate, there can be firm tannins, giving the wine a defined structure.

Terroirs

Subtle differences in the wines are due to differences in soil, exposure and altitude, all of which vary considerably in the zone around the village of Rully. At heights of 230-300 meters, the slopes produce wines which can compete with the best wines of the nearby Côte de Beaune. Generally, Pinot Noir is grown on brown or limey soils with little clay in their make-up. Chardonnay prefers a clay-limestone soil.

Color

White wines - Chardonnay

Red wines - Pinot Noir

Production surface area

1 hectare (ha) = 2.4 acres

Whites : 223.56 ha (including 58.81 ha Premier Cru)

Reds : 133.47 ha (including 37.19 ha Premier Cru)

Food

The fruit of white Rully calls for delicate. tender food. As the Saone River is just across the plain to the east, you often see river fish, sauteed and in wine or butter sauces or fine Bresse poultry in creamy sauces. It adapts well to hard cheeses such as Comté.

The reds surprise by their structure, at once solid (they can be closed early on) and fruit filled, they match well with roasted poultry, or offal (liver, sweetbreads, kidneys) in sauce or simply sauteed. Risotto and pasta with meat can have the richness to smooth down the firm tannins of a young Rully.

Appellations

On the label, the appellations 'Rully' and 'Rully 1er Cru' may be followed by the name of a specific vineyard, known as a climat.

The following climats are classified as premier cru:

Agneux

Champs Cloux

Chapitre

Clos du Chaigne

Clos St Jacques

Cloux

Grésigny

La Bressande

La Fosse

La Pucelle

La Renarde

Le Meix Cadot

Le Meix Caillet

Les Pierres

Margotés

Marissou

Molesme

Montpalais

Pillot

Préaux

Rabourcé

Raclot

Vauvry

The following climats are village wines from a single vineyard, know as a lieu-dit.

Bas de Vauvery

Bas des Chênes

Brange

Chaponnière

Chatalienne

Chêne

Cloux Louvrier

Crays

En Thivaux

En Vésignot

Fromange

La Barre

La Billeraine

La Chaume

La Crée

La Curasse

La Gaudine

La Martelle

Le Truyer

Les Cailloux

Les Gaudors

Meix de Pellerey

Montmorin

Moulin à Vent

Plante Moraine

Plantenay

Rosey

Varot

Villerange

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$64.00
 
SKU: EPON03W-20
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