Tasted in Fleurie with Joseph Bouchard, 06 February 2020.
Château Poncié / Villa Ponciago
Lieu-dit Poncié
69820 Fleurie
Tel: +33 4 74 69 83 33
www.chateaudeponcie.fr
More reports for the domaine Château Poncié
Every year I look forward to a pre-tasting walk through the vines of Poncié – seeing firsthand the change of culture in the vines. Joseph is really keen to show that the domaine is looking to a sustainable future, and whilst the animals – the sheep, geese, chickens, bees and peacocks – are, relatively, more for show, it’s clear that Joseph would love to leave some of the monoculture of modern wineries behind…
Joseph on 2019:
“We were fortunate to have no frost so it was a relatively easy season. Almost 100 mm of rain in August brought freshness in the vines – bringing a normal balance despite the heat. The soil drains very quickly here so no worry of excess. Still, we produced only 32 hl/ha here. We had millerandes from the cool weather in flowering time – good for quality but not for volume. Our aim is only 40-45 hl/ha but we are still down.”
Joseph on 2018:
“A nice year with a bigger harvest – 40-48 hl/ha depending on the parcels – and the balance is good. We started with a wet Spring before the good sunny dry times – 28 May for the flowering. We started harvesting on 4 September. We were worried about maladies during the first 3 weeks of nearly non-stop rain, but the dry weather that followed was just what was required to control any issues. Some modest and occasional rain in the high Summer which meant that we had good ripening and a decent volume.”
The wines…
The range encompasses delicious wine to drink now to seriously great wine to have a bit more patience with – the energy and clarity in the wines today is on another level to the first wines I tasted here – around 2014…
“All the cuvées have been vinified without sulfur in the last vintages – only additions later in elevage/bottling. We saw no issues with fermentations in either 2018 or 2019.”
2018 Beaujolais Villages Blanc Grand Lamure
“From the back of the hill of Mongenas which was planted with gamay but we saw that there was much more clay than other parcels and we thought it a cooler place than most so we decided to make a change here – we started with 1 ha and now have 2. Maybe it’s not yet finished. So far only making 30 hl/ha and so far it’s always been the first parcel harvested” – this would be Fleurie if it was still planted with gamay. Very little sees barrel ageing, most in tank. This was the first parcel converted to Bio and will be labelled AB from the 2019 cuvée.
A touch of oak, round, a cushioned impression. Nicely incisive, mineral and saline, broadening in the finish – a very wide finish. Long. Mineral style – rather tasty.
An assembly of parcels from around the château and domaine buildings. All harvested in small cases as would be done in Beaune, then a triage table then anywhere between 30-50% is destemmed – no oak in the elevage – cement tanks..
A nice open, aromatic freshness here, floral and completely lovey. Bright, saline, driving, that’s a lovely width of flavour – that’s a gorgeous wine in 2018 – bravo!
2018 Fleurie La Salomine
The hillside under the forest, plain south, south-east facing – 300-400m of altitude, south, south-east facing, usually the last parcel to be harvested. Light soil, very sandy old vines, goblet. A longer elevage, 50% older barrels – none new.
Lots of colour. A more compact nose, there’s density of fruit here. More weight to the flavour – mouth-filling, faintly touched by tannin but no grain. Intense more mineral, driving towards the finish, serious in the finish even. Long another super wine – well-done!
Largest proprietors here with 3.5 ha – the side of the hill that looks towards Moulin à Vent. Not the last harvested, though it’s close, despite north, north-east facing vines, as the hill dominates the MAV plain below and always gets the first and last rays of the sun. 50 – 85 year-old vines, not always very high yielding as the grapes are quite small. About 12 months of barrel elevage, almost zero new.
More open, a little floral – a halfway-house between the last two wines. A more mineral stance, mouth-watering, super energy with salinity too – long finishing, to be patient with but here is a great wine.