Tasted in Fleurie with Joseph Bouchard – blinded by the sun – 02 March 2023.
Château Poncié
Lieu-dit Poncié
69820 Fleurie
Tel: +33 4 74 69 83 33
www.chateaudeponcie.fr
More reports with Château Poncié
Joseph on 2022:
“22 here was a very small volume – the reverse of 21 because of the extreme dryness. All the crus on the sandy granite had a hard time of it due to the dryness – whereas in 21, because we have such draining soils we had not too much problems – of course there was still a lot work but the mildew was not so strong here.”
Joseph on 2021:
“Here was actually really good – we managed 40 hl/ha – we were hardly touched by the frost and our soils are really well-draining, so apart from one area at the bottom that struggled to fully ripen we have some nice things. I think that 21 is a vintage for the grand terroirs – now vines are planted everywhere and in most recent vintages they are all ripe – 21 is different, we did get touched by some frost in Hautes du Py but only here.”
The wines…
A very good range in 2021…
“All the cuvées have been vinified without sulfur in the last vintages – only additions later in elevage/bottling:”
2021 Fleurie 949
The assembly grapes around the domaine, a small amount of barrel elevage included. Only some sulfur at bottling time.
Airy attractive and slightly cushioned. Round, proper Fleurie, comely, attractive wine. That’s a wine with concentration and a nicely mouth-watering finish. This is very good.
2021 Fleurie Les Hautes du Py
The hillside under the forest, plain south, south-east facing – 300-400m of altitude, south, south-east facing – looking down on Poncié. Usually the last parcel to be harvested. Light soil, very sandy old vines, goblet-pruned. this was previously named Salomine.
Higher-toned florals – very perfumed. In the mouth, this is complex and interesting, with a texture of velour. The finish has nice clarity and slow-burning intensity. Is there a hint of gentian in the aromas? – I can’t be sure – but anyway at this level it’s something positive!
2021 Fleurie Les Moriers
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. Extra elevage here vs the last.
Deeper, cushioned red fruit aromas. The structure is visible but nicely architectural – not hard. Almost juicy finishing. That’s simply excellent wine – a lovely glass.
2021 Cote de Brouilly Le Pavé
First vintage – the harvest all assembled in small cases – 80-year-old vines and 1.8 hectares worth. Previously worked in a ‘conventional’ manner and since last year already in conversion to organic
Extra colour. Extra high tones too – slowly becoming more silken and perfumed. Mouth-filling – very different in style, still mouth-filling but much more energetic. Clean flavoured the finish is narrower but still fine versus the Fleurie wines.
And the white:
2021 Beaujolais Villages Blanc
“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.” This would be Fleurie if it was still planted with gamay. Very little sees barrel ageing, most in tank. The first wine is labelled AB at the domaine.
An open, quite wide nose with soma oak accompaniment. This is nice in the mouth – vibrant, and clean but with the creamy barrel too – I’d be waiting at least 2 years for the barrel to fade – the current commercial vintage is 2019 here – because the rest of the wine is fine, pure, direct and of fine, delicious, energy, finishing long too…