Château Poncié – 2015

14.3.2017billn

Tasted in Fleurie with Joseph Bouchard, 09 February 2017.

Château Poncié / Villa Ponciago
Lieu-dit Poncié
69820 Fleurie
Tel: +33 4 74 69 83 33
www.villaponciago.fr

I noted a clearer emphasis on the château name here on this visit, rather than villa. Perhaps rightly or wrongly, but that does fit better with a wine from Beaujolais – regardless of the impressive history!

Joseph on 2016:
It’s a good vintage, though hard in the vines, with lots of rain and hail too – fortunately we were hardly impacted on this side of Fleurie. July and August brought nice weather, despite a few storms we had a good maturity for us. So, it was a difficult spring and a nice summer and we stared to harvest a little later than in Beaune – the 26 September for the chardonnay, finishing about 10+ days later. We used fewer harvesters this year, we went slowly, choosing to follow the maturity. The wines look to be in a good shape – the grapes were nice.

Joseph on 2015:
It’s a particular vintage – a very warm and dry summer – from the end of May almost no rain – on the sandy soil here we could see the grapes shrinking by the day! A storm was forecast which would have helped a lot, but it never arrived. We started to harvest on the 1st of September – I exaggerate when I say the grapes ‘were dry’ but whilst they had a confit impression fortunately there wasn’t any blocking of the maturity. It was a small harvest, of-course, an average of 31 hl/ha. Really an extreme year. The density and colour are really impressive.

The wines…

All these bottlings are sealed with DIAM5. Well-done reds, but I found a small lack of clarity in both wines today, this could be down to the recent bottling I suppose. Lets see…

2015 Fleurie Le Pré Roi
The parcels round the château. Bottled a little earlier than the next cuvée.
Super deep colour, a nose that’s dark, really impressive – ripe for sure – but it’s also clearly gamay. Good volume in the mouth, great texture, a base of fine tannin, wide and with a long, layered, mouth-watering flavour. Dark almost dried fruit in the finish, long, long, long. My first wine of the day and there’s less sucrosity than some in 2015 – but that’s no bad thing. This will be very good, helped very much by a fine acidity.

2015 Fleurie La Salomine
The south-facing hillside with 400m altitude. Bottled at the end of January – just 2 weeks ago – 18 months of elevage, mainly in 400 l barrels.
Wider, fresher, a little floral, fine flashes of dark fruit. This is altogether a more interesting and inviting nose. Supple, wide, layered with a little extra depth of texture. This isn’t the most elegant fruit to start with, but it grows and augments to a slowly mouth-watering effect – it holds the attention really well. There has been plenty of oak used here, yet it offers just a casual aromatic accent, and just a little textural change in the mouth. Well done wine…

2015 Beaujolais Villages Blanc Grand Lamure
Really in Fleurie and the label would be Fleurie if planted with gamay, but since 2009 this has been planted with chardonnay – the soil is granitic but also with more clay than the other parcels. It’s the first vintage for this wine with 2,200 bottles. Started certification in bio in this parcel in 2016. ‘The grapes were well golden in this vintage, this a good selection of vines from the Côte d’Or. Elevage in barrel, looking for freshness and minerality – of course there is exceptional maturity in 2015 – 13.5 %. 1 ha in production but 2.5 ha are planted and waiting to deliver…’
Hmm, an instantly attractive nose is a Côte d’Or style with a little oak toast, but importantly also a freshness of chardonnay behind. Clearly a little fat to the texture, but also a fine line and mineral flavour. There is plenty of oak, no mistake, but the line and presence of this wine is very good. Id like a twist more freshness. But this is a great first effort – well dome. A pretty salinity in the finish too. Considering the vintage they did good!

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