2019 Domaine Ponsot, Morey-Saint-Denis Premier Cru, Monts Luisants Vieilles Vignes

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2019 Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru Clos des Monts Luisants Blanc wafts from the glass with notes of citrus oil, crisp orchard fruit, white flowers and pastry cream. Full-bodied, layered and incisive, it's concentrated and chiseled, concluding with a long, saline finish. This site seems to go from strength to strength in these warmer vintages. Domaine Ponsot started picking on September 20, and winemaker Alexandre Abel reported yields some 35 to 40 below average, with alcohols in the 14s and healthy pHs at around 3.3. Yet while alcohols in 2019 were if anything higher than in 2018, the 2019 wines are more elegant, with livelier fruit tones and less overtly muscular structure. That's not a criticism of the 2018s, however, which we revisited from bottle, confirming that they are wines that will require patience: interestingly, the most put-together of the range was the Clos de la Roche, a cuvée that was bottled last, in July 2020, and which certainly seemed to have profited from the longer élevage. 92-94 points