Tasted with Coralie Bernard, flanked by her parents, 25th November 2023.

Domaine Ponsard-Chevalier
2 Les Tilles
21590 Santenay
Tel: +33 3 80 20 60 87
www.ponsard-chevalier.fr

I tasted a wine from this domaine at the main prize-giving ‘The Majors‘ of the Tastevinage. And for its label, it was a properly great wine. So time to pay a visit !!

Coralie Bernard is the winemaker today and she explains, “It was my grandfather who started the domaine but fell ill so put the vines out to fermage. My parents re-started the domaine but initially, with only 1.5 ha of vines – they had a second, actually main, activity of producing apples around the domaine – selling some apple juice too. Today we have about 7.5 hectares, producing Santenay and Maranges – plus Bourgognes – the main market is still France here. We partnered with Drouhin so for a long time only produced around 6,000 bottles, mainly for private clients – we like to see our customers – but we are also selling more and more into restaurants these days.”

It wasn’t just the red that was the major this year, their white Santenay has won the white label of the Tastevinage for 5 years in a row.

The wines see one year in barrel – the 2022s are now in tank – and are normally bottled in spring. It was a few weeks earlier for the 2021s as their volume was low. “The wines from Santenay and Maranges need some time – so we taste some 21s – which have been bottled about 6 months,” says Coralie. “In 2021, We had frost like the others – but it was mainly confined to the slopes – we are used to our Charmes frosting at the bottom of the hill but in this vintage, it was mainly the slopes, Still, for us we hardly had 50%. It was a very different year to all those vintages around it, vintages that were sunny and hot – and it was a lot of work too. But still, yes – we are happy.”

The wines…

These 21s are very good – the people are lovely. The pricing is ‘relatively’ low. You know what you have to do 😉

2021 Santenay Charmes
Just out of the village in the direction of Maranges. This is the vintage that follows the prize-winning 2020. 80 years old vines – planted by the family. Used about 30% whole cluster for this.
Soft red fruit, pretty florals too – round, not large-scaled but very inviting. Hmm, nice scale to this, very faintly grained with a tiny tannin. Let that ‘affiné’ a year and it will be super.

2021 Maranges 1er Clos des Roi
Next year they will have 4 Maranges 1ers – ‘but people usually choose the one called King! This is always the first to be ready too.’
A finer width of more focused red fruit. Ooh – that’s really silky, more direct, only in the finish a little more velour.

2021 Maranges 1er Fussière
Shy but pretty – that’s still a very elegant nose. Broader, melting, almost crystalline red fruit with a more floral accent, finishing velvet, long easy mouth-watering. That will be lovely – wait 2 years!

2021 Maranges 1er Le Clos les Loyères
Very shy, faintly red but it’s a clean nose. Direct, more structural – architectural – growing in intensity – juicy finishing. Keep two years again – but that’s lovely – just be a little patient.

Le White: