We Taste Test The Full Range From Burgundian Iconoclast Maison Laurent Ponsot From White Meursaults & Vosne-Romanée To Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru

The year was 2008. Doug Barzelay, a respected New York lawyer, was flipping through the catalogue of a major fine-wine auction house when an extraordinary listing caught his eye. It was a large collection of Burgundy from Domaine Ponsot that included a selection of particularly prestigious single-vineyard wines. There was even a range of Grand Cru Clos Saint-Denis bearing vintages dating back to the 1940s. The Harvard attorney knew that this domaine had been producing wine since the 1930s. But something still felt suspicious about this consignment. Doug had never encountered vintages as old as some of these. And the labels of some of these apparently very old bottles were pristine. 

He reached out to none other than the winemaker Laurent Ponsot, who was leading the domaine then. Laurent immediately shared Doug’s suspicions.

There were 97 bottles purporting to be Domaine Ponsot. But whatever these bottles contained, the oldest and most valuable ones had histories that did not fit. His estate had only begun bottling Clos Saint-Denis in 1982. The unusual consignment of Domaine Ponsot Clos Saint-Denis advertised vintages that ran from 1945 to 1971, which was historically impossible. For once, Burgundy’s maddeningly impenetrable maze of vineyards with French names and histories had claimed a deserving victim: the counterfeiter himself.

Laurent phoned auctioneer John Kapon. Over two phone calls, Laurent repeatedly explained the discrepancies and requested that John withdraw the suspect Domaine Ponsot lots from the New York auction. John agreed.

Kurniawan's counterfeit bottles of Domaine Ponsot Clos Saint-Denis (Source: Club Oenologique)

But there was still something about the way John spoke that troubled Laurent. John sounded hesitant. These bottles had been consigned by the Gatsbyesque wine merchant Rudy Kurniawan, known for throwing lavish parties and hosting tastings of prized Burgundy so often that he acquired the gaudy nickname “Dr. Romanée-Conti”. In fact, just two years prior, “Dr. Conti” had consigned wines to two of Acker’s most high-value auctions that fetched a staggering US$35 million in total.

Would John Kapon honour his promise and withdraw the lots? How could “Dr. Conti” Kurniawan have made such a serious mistake? And more glaringly, what would the withdrawal say about the provenance of the previously auctioned wine?

Still concerned, Laurent booked the next flight to New York to personally attend the auction. Sure enough, when Doug and Laurent stepped in, the suspicious consignment of “Domaine Ponsot” remained in the auction catalogue, with bottles in the same room as auction bidders.

Realising that Laurent was present at the auction, John relented and announced that all the Domaine Ponsot wines were being withdrawn at the domaine’s request. Of the 97 bottles, Laurent identified 84 as counterfeit.

But Laurent still needed to track down his wine counterfeiter. A lunch was thus set up with Doug, John and Kurniawan. Kurniawan insisted on his bona fides as a well-intentioned seller who made an honest mistake. This wasn’t unheard of. And so the larger question remained unanswered: where had all this wine come from?

The search for that answer would take Laurent far beyond his vineyards and, eventually, when he uncovered the high-profile case of wine fraud, make Laurent Ponsot one of the most well-known winemakers outside of collectors’ circles.

The Ponsot family inheritance

Laurent Ponsot’s first claim to fame came from his decades of attentive work building his family’s Domaine Ponsot into one of Burgundy’s most admired modern estates. Above all, it was his work with the estate’s prized Clos de la Roche. He was especially respected for doing so with a stubborn independence extending from the date of harvest to the stopper in the bottle.

Jean-Marie and Laurent Ponsot in the 1980s (Source: Domaine Ponsot)

Laurent’s family estate, Domaine Ponsot, traces its beginnings to 1872, when William Ponsot, a landowner from Saint-Romain, bought the grand cru Clos de la Roche and premier cru Clos des Monts Luisants in Morey-Saint-Denis. Both holdings would remain central to the estate through the generations that followed – Clos de la Roche for its reds and Clos des Monts Luisants for its white Aligoté that was replanted by the founder William himself post-phylloxera in 1911.

Laurent was born into the family in 1954, although he took a roundabout route into its wine business. He initially studied hospitality, founded a travel agency in Paris and spent time abroad – a photograph published by 67 Pall Mall shows him in Montreal in 1975. Looking back, he readily describes himself as having been a hippie. He returned home in 1981 and began studying oenology, before joining his father as a winemaker in 1983.

The stubbornly independent winemaker

Laurent is fiercely attached to the idea that the soil-based terroir influences play a significant role in winemaking. In one interview, he described how he tasted wine from grapevines grown without soil and found that it tasted of little beyond sugar and water. He would spend much of his career trying to preserve that relationship in the finished bottle, while questioning other growers’ conventional methods supposedly required to do so.

In Burgundy, vignerons famously use draught horses instead of heavy tractors to avoid soil compaction and to protect delicate root systems. However, Laurent believes that the pressure exerted by a horse’s hoof could still be damaging to the soil. Instead, he prefers using tractors fitted with low-pressure tyres to tend to the soil, arguing that they put less pressure on the ground than the horses’ hooves do.

He is similarly particular about the freedom to protect his vines – farming without chemical treatments, while reserving the right to intervene if a threat on the scale of phylloxera arrived. He declines organic and biodynamic certification because he considers their restrictions too binding. These choices suggest a rather practical understanding of the Burgundian respect for the land: he firmly judges a method by what he believes it does for the vineyard, rather than by how traditional or natural it appears.

Come harvest date, patience became one of the things for which he was known. While vignerons in recent decades have become increasingly anxious about the warming climate, Laurent would often pick much later than many others while accepting lower yields – generally waiting from 7 days to 2 weeks after others had completed their harvest.

Aligote white grapes on the vine replanted in 1911 after phylloxera (Source: Domaine Ponsot)

There are different aspects of ripeness that do not necessarily arrive together. Laurent’s priority was to accept the grapes only when they had attained a sufficient phenolic ripeness – which means looking beyond the sweetness of the juice to the maturity of the skins and seeds, and the tannins responsible for the red wine’s drying, gripping sensation. For Laurent, the extra days were essential before his work in the cellar began.

Grapes were then sorted in the vineyard, destemmed according to the requirements of each vintage, and fermented in temperature-controlled wooden vats. Domaine Ponsot was built into a slope, allowing gravity to assist the movement of the wine.

Racking red wine at Domaine Ponsot (Source: Domaine Ponsot)

Once the fruit reached the cellar, he was determined to keep out the influence of fresh oak. At Domaine Ponsot, Laurent used no new barrels for either reds or whites – one wine writer noted how the youngest barrels there were at least 10 years old. The only function of a wooden barrel is to allow the wine to breathe as it matures – something he would later investigate whether it could be reproduced entirely without wood.

He scrupulously held back additives as much as he could. His preference was to avoid sulphur dioxide during barrel ageing, and he had been experimenting with nitrogen and argon to protect the wine as early as 1984. While sulphur dioxide is typically added to wine to protect it against oxidation and unwanted microbial activity, Laurent’s approach of using inert gases similarly helps limit its contact with oxygen without becoming an additive.

His explanation to drinkers is that a doctor would not prescribe an aspirin every day unless the patient developed a headache – so why automatically treat a wine for a problem it might never develop? In 2003 he did add sulphur to a bottling due to concerns about volatile acidity. His attention to each vintage and wine is particular.

As we’ll see, this same attention became even more systematic in Laurent’s own winery, Maison Laurent Ponsot, where he says every barrel is analysed each month. Temperature control, rigorous cleaning and protective gases give him ways to manage the wine’s surroundings while limiting additions to the wine itself. He has summed up the purpose of the technology: “to help us do nothing” – a restrained approach that still involves close supervision. Even bottling proceeds according to the individual wine: his 2016 reds were bottled between February and May 2018, on dates chosen by tasting.

But first, let’s go back to how Laurent’s attention to detail and doggedness led him to work with the FBI to unravel the heart of the world’s biggest wine fraud scandal.

Five years of questions after a New York lunch with Dr. Conti

During that fateful lunch with Kurniawan in 2008, Laurent initially remained cordial with Kurniawan. With the title “Dr. Conti” notwithstanding, Kurniawan could well be a bona fide seller who did not realise he was auctioning counterfeits. So Laurent asked him, where did these bottles come from?

Kurniawan looked down on his plate and slowly explained that he had bought so many bottles over the years that he could not remember the origin of this consignment.

It was a peculiar response, thought Laurent. This wasn’t six bottles from a little-known producer that a wine collector would easily forget. It was a staggering quantity of what was supposedly extremely rare Burgundy.

Laurent Ponsot - who led winemaking at the 19th century Burgundy estate Domaine Ponsot and prolific wine fraudster Rudy Kurniawan.

With repeated enquiries, Kurniawan shared that these wines came from a cellar belonging to someone called Pak Hendra, “somewhere in Asia”. The men met several months later in Los Angeles, where Kurniawan tried to butter up Laurent at an Italian fine-dining restaurant with exceptional wine, including an expensive 1955 La Tâche. Laurent remained focused on the provenance of the counterfeits. When pressed about the mysterious Pak Hendra once again, Kurniawan reluctantly gave Laurent two Jakarta phone numbers that supposedly belonged to his source.

Repeated phone calls to both Indonesian numbers went unanswered. It was then explained to Laurent by a friend in Singapore that “Pak” simply meant “Mister” while “Hendra” was an extremely common Indonesian name. Kurniawan’s purported seller was the equivalent of “Mr Smith” in Asia with no meaningful way to identify him.

FBI investigators looked into the Indonesian phone numbers given to Laurent and found that they weren’t personal numbers belonging to any alleged wine supplier. One was a public phone number to Lion Air, an Indonesian budget carrier, and the other was to Gajah Mada Plaza, a shopping centre in Jakarta.

By now, Laurent had become highly suspicious of Kurniawan. But concrete evidence of fraud was still required – and the authorities did not have the expertise to identify counterfeit wines.

So over the next two years, Laurent went on a personal crusade to systematically investigate Burgundies he suspected were counterfeit – attending numerous wine tastings, examining bottles, investigating their provenance traced to sellers and collectors. This investigation cost him approximately €120,000.

In the course of his investigation, Laurent found out that Kurniawan had a habit of buying large quantities of older vintages, but comparatively inexpensive négociant Burgundy (wines that are bottled by French wine merchants, rather than original estate owners). This was a significant finding. Ownership of the same Burgundy cru is often fragmented across several owners. A motivated wine counterfeiter could in theory obtain an old vintage of Clos de la Roche from a lesser-known négociant and pass it off as a 1959 Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche by rebottling and changing its label.

Armed with his findings, in 2010, Laurent met with FBI Special Agent James Wynne in Manhattan and began working with him to investigate the wine counterfeiting scheme. Investigators obtained banking records, emails, auction catalogues and witness accounts to reconstruct Kurniawan’s borrowing behaviour, correspondence and wine-related transactions.

 

Wine used as evidence during the trial of Rudy Kurniawan.

 

A court-authorised search warrant of Kurniawan’s email inbox revealed messages from Kurniawan asking an acquaintance working in a wine auction business for detailed photographs of an authentic 1934 Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche. This strange request came shortly before Kurniawan would put his own supposed bottles of Domaine Ponsot up for auction.

The FBI separately discovered that Kurniawan had a habit of ordering empty fine-wine bottles to his California home and large quantities of speciality paper designed to look old, along with glue and inkpads for stamping labels.

 

Photograph of a genuine 1934 Clos de la Roche obtained by Rudy Kurniawan, submitted as evidence to the Southern District of New York Court. 

 

In March 2012, Kurniawan was arrested and taken into custody. In his home, the agents discovered evidence of an extensive wine-counterfeiting operation: empty bottles, corking equipment, wine labels, and wines in various stages of being counterfeited. Laurent was right. Kurniawan had been blending inexpensive négociant wines and presenting them as far rarer and more expensive bottles.

 

 

At the Manhattan trial in 2013, Laurent was called as a witness in federal court. He began by explaining to the jury of laypeople why words like “Clos de la Roche” or “Clos Saint-Denis” meant so much on a label and for the value of a wine. Using maps, he located Burgundy, the Côte de Nuits and Morey-Saint-Denis for the jury. He then explained the progression from regional Bourgogne through village wines and premiers crus to grands crus. On the coloured map of Morey-Saint-Denis, he identified bounded vineyard areas, including Clos de la Roche and Clos Saint-Denis. These names were all important references to the particular place a wine originates from.

 

Courtroom sketch of Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Facciponti presenting evidence during the federal fraud trial of Rudy Kurniawan.

 

When asked why pursuing this matter was so important to him, Laurent responded that these counterfeits were “dirtying the spirit of the appellations of Burgundy”.

At the end of the trial, Kurniawan was convicted of mail fraud and wire fraud relating to his wine counterfeiting operation, and eventually sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. The judge thanked Laurent for his part in the investigation.

The case carried Laurent’s name into a far wider world. In the 2016 documentary Sour Grapes, he appeared alongside Special Agent Wynne. Viewers who knew little of Burgundy encountered him as a wine producer prepared to pursue the counterfeits of his wines to the ends of the Earth. But even after the end of the high-profile Kurniawan case, Laurent noted, there were still counterfeit bottles and counterfeiters: he told Wine Spectator that he had identified another Kurniawan counterfeit amongst five 1972 Clos de la Roche bottles at a restaurant in San Francisco. The work to prevent wine fraud continues.

 

Laurent Ponsot outside the federal court for Rudy Kurniawan's trial (Source: AFP)

A new chapter at 62: Maison Laurent Ponsot

For all the attention the Kurniawan case brought him, Laurent continued making wine at Domaine Ponsot until 2017 when he announced his departure. He was 62 and had spent 36 years at the family estate. At the time, his three sisters, Rose-Marie, Catherine and Stéphanie, together held 75 per cent, while he held the remaining quarter of Domaine Ponsot.

Laurent has not publicly disclosed the personal reasons behind his departure, but he has indicated that he craved more freedom to explore new ways of doing things with his son, Clément.

 

(Source: Laurent Ponsot)

 

Announced in 2017, Laurent’s new venture is Maison Laurent Ponsot, which operates as a Burgundy négociant based in Gilly-lès-Cîteaux. Its stated purpose was to make and mature wines under Laurent’s own name, drawing both on vineyards the family farmed and on other growers’ grapes, juice or wine.

This gave Laurent a much wider palette with which to work. Alongside familiar grands crus would come village wines assembled from several sources, a substantial collection of Meursaults and new wines from places beyond the holdings he had managed at Domaine Ponsot. He wanted to become as well known for his whites as for his reds.

 

Laurent Ponsot inspecting his current vineyards (Source: The New York Times)

 

Clos de la Roche and Clos des Monts Luisants remained under Domaine Ponsot’s ownership, but Laurent brought valuable people and vineyard-associated relationships with him. Cellarmaster Arnaud Rouellat followed him from Domaine Ponsot, as did the négociant contracts Laurent had personally developed since 1989. Most significantly, he retained control over the highly valuable métayage (sharecropping/leasing) agreements established in the 1980s with the Mercier family’s Domaine des Chézeaux for Clos Saint-Denis, Griotte-Chambertin, Chambertin and Chambolle-Musigny Les Charmes. These were vineyards he knew intimately, and they would supply an important part of the new range’s early greatness.

The 7 hectares now farmed by Laurent account for about a quarter of Maison Laurent Ponsot’s volume. He could thus continue to work with vineyards while developing a much larger range as a wine buyer. This is his idea of a “haute couture négociant” where he selects the best material available, whether grapes, unfermented juice or wine already in barrel, then takes responsibility for its development into the finished bottle.

 

 

Laurent has also been passionate about the practice of blending across Burgundy’s geographical boundaries. As much as Burgundian producers celebrate site-specific wines, Laurent believes that the combination of several well-chosen parcels can express the character of an appellation more completely than a single holding. In an interview with 67 Pall Mall, he pointed out that none of his village wines under Maison Laurent Ponsot came from just one vineyard. He drew a comparison with Champagne’s great houses, where choosing and assembling different sources is central to the producer’s expertise.

In Laurent Ponsot’s Burgundy, the most important objective is to express “the essence of the appellation” – a Meursault-Charmes can combine purchases from several growers within Charmes while it remains a wine of that premier cru. A broader village Meursault can bring together parcels from across the village appellation. Laurent’s role is to decide which components belong together and whether the result expresses the name it carries.

We will recall Laurent’s winemaking philosophy, developed since his time at Domaine Ponsot. Another stated ideal here is “an absence of style”. Laurent wants the wine to show its origin without conspicuous oak flavour or an aggressive winemaking signature.

 

(Source: Laurent Ponsot)

 

Laurent’s new bottles have a conspicuous identity of their own. He designed a space-age-evoking silver label with the Maison’s name in neon green using a NASA-like typeface. Rather than evoking tradition and the Middle Ages, he wanted his new house to look forward.

And while Domaine Ponsot had named its cuvées after birds and insects, Laurent Ponsot would take on the names of plants – generally the white wines would be named after flowers and flowering plants, while the reds would be named after trees.

Winemaking at Maison Laurent Ponsot

Alongside farming and fermentation personally done by Laurent’s team, much of the important work as a “haute couture négociant” begins with selection and maturation at the centre of the business.

This means deciding what to buy, and in what form. Red wines were often made with grapes from Laurent’s own vineyards or purchased from other growers, but could also include vinified wine in barrels. For white wines, Laurent generally prefers buying grape must – the unfermented grape juice – because he considers white grapes and white wine especially fragile. All this material arrives by February following the harvest.

Once the materials have arrived, Laurent’s familiar preferences continue through that process: ripe grapes, no new oak and, for the most part, no added sulphur. There was no need to abandon the methods that had served him at Domaine Ponsot, but he now had the opportunity to build a winery around them. In 2021, his new winery facility, named Les Ateliers Ponsot (“The Ponsot Workshop”) was built in the business park of Gilly-lès-Cîteaux, east of Vougeot.

 

Laurent Ponsot outside his new glass-fronted winery in Gilly (Source: 67 Pall Mall)

 

Les Ateliers Ponsot breaks away entirely from the traditional ivy-covered stone castles commonly associated with old Burgundy wineries. While it is nestled within an ancient vineyard plot, it appears anything but. A massive multi-storey glass-curtain prow extends out from one corner of the matte-black, geometrically shaped complex like a modern office building. It reflects off an integrated water feature while flooding the tasting rooms and technical cellars with daylight.

The finished complex integrates the winery, cellars, technical workshops, offices and reception areas, with space for visitors and trade guests. It has temperature control, facilities to generate protective inert gas on site, and custom-made stainless-steel vats of different shapes and sizes according to their intended use. Some take the form of steel amphorae. The barrel cellar is equally modern: barrels are held individually in mechanical racks instead of being piled directly on one another. Laurent fancies his winery avant-garde, but he has also compared it to a cheese factory – it is highly sterile. He argues that the ability to clean everything is the greatest advance in modern winemaking.

 

(Source: Laurent Ponsot)

 

Every barrel is analysed by the team monthly allowing the team to catch developing problems and intervene only when necessary.

The same attention continues at bottling. Laurent tastes and judges whether each wine is ready, allowing different wines to proceed at different times. The 2016 reds, for example, were bottled across several months from February to May 2018. Even a single barrel’s wine could be bottled on different dates.

The decision whether to use additives also differs from cuvée to cuvée, vintage to vintage. Certain wines may be completely unfined and unfiltered, but Laurent ultimately judges whether they are necessary. Wines that did not meet Laurent’s expectations – if they were unfaithful to their appellation – would not be bottled at all. These wines could be sold under a broader appellation, or repurposed for distillation.

The wines of Laurent Ponsot

The Maison’s wines run the gamut from regional rouge and blanc labels to more geographically specific wines.

Laurent has repeatedly mentioned in interviews that he wants to make great wines to be drunk often, rather than bought as investments or gifts. Substantial attention is thus devoted to his regional wines: the Bourgogne rouge Cuvée des Peupliers, named for the poplar, and Bourgogne blanc Cuvée du Perce-Neige, the snowdrop – each wine is assembled from 10 to 12 locations.

The range naturally separates into villages and crus.

 

A Meursault vineyard.

 

Laurent hopes for his white wine to become as renowned as his reds; the range he has assembled gives that ambition considerable runway. He has already made white wine back at Domaine Ponsot, including Corton-Charlemagne and Montrachet as well as the historic Aligoté – but here, Laurent’s range is built around Meursault. The village wine, Meursault Cuvée du Pandoréa (which we will taste later), assembled from over 15 locations, has been made since the house’s first vintage in 2016, following the house’s transitional 2015 “Année Zéro” wines.

Around the village of Meursault are four Premier Cru bottlings from Blagny, Charmes, Genevrières and Perrières, each with its own flower name: Blagny Myosotis (to be tasted), the forget-me-not; Charmes Centaurée, the cornflower; Genevrières Ipomée, the morning glory; and Perrières Hellébore (to be tasted), through which Laurent can explore individual identities within his favourite white-wine territory of Meursault.

 

The hill of Corton, the home of Corton-Charlemagne.

 

At Grand Cru level, Corton-Charlemagne is central, with the Corton-Charlemagne Cuvée du Kalimeris (to be tasted) sourced from 8 providers and 12 locations. At the most prestigious end of the hierarchy, Bâtard-Montrachet Cuvée des Lilas and Montrachet Cuvée des Orchidées brought two more celebrated Grands Crus into the range, although they have not been made since 2019, likely due to the outlandish price that the Maison would otherwise have to charge for a bottle to remain viable. Laurent has noted that a barrel of Montrachet has risen from about €42,000 to €200,000 over fifteen years. Access to a great vineyard wouldn’t mean much if its wine could not be viably priced for the market.

Weather imposes another limit on these fragile white grapes. In 2021, frost reduced his usual white production from about 150 barrels to just 35. The Blagny crop was completely lost, and neither Myosotis nor Hellébore was made that year – part of the vicissitudes of modern winemaking.

 

Sign at the edge of the Chambertin vineyard.

 

In red, village wines of Gevrey-Chambertin Cuvée de l’Aulne, Chambolle-Musigny Cuvée de la Violette (to be tasted) and Vosne-Romanée Cuvée du Cerisier (to be tasted) lead into a growing selection of Premiers Crus and the Grands Crus that first drew collectors to his name.

Cuvée de l’Aulne in particular is made using both parcels owned by Laurent and material purchased as a négociant – an example of how the house can draw on its own vineyard work while looking for components that Laurent wants in his Gevrey.

Going into the Premier Crus, the Beaune Cuvée du Noyer is a blend of several classified sites – combining fruit from eight Premier Cru vineyards across Beaune’s three hills – an interesting example of a bottle with a Premier Cru designation without being a wine from one particular vineyard.

 

Map of Griotte-Chambertin owners, including Laurent Ponsot and Domaine des Chezeaux (Source: Vinfolio)

 

Chambolle-Musigny Les Charmes Cuvée du Tilleul continues a wine tied to the prestigious Chézeaux vineyard’s leases, while Les Sentiers Cuvée du Sorbier and Gevrey-Chambertin En Ergot Cuvée du Mélèze were added in 2019.

The Grand Cru bottlings are where Laurent’s earlier career and his latest ambitions at the Maison become closely intertwined. Many began with vineyards he had worked with for decades, brought together with newly acquired vineyards or leases.

From the Côte de Nuits, Clos de Vougeot Cuvée du Cèdre (to be tasted), named for the cedar, is a Grand Cru with a large breadth of sources, again exemplifying Laurent’s argument for the quality of Burgundian blends. Extensive blending is more unusual within the Côte de Nuits, where Grand Cru prestige is often associated with individual vineyard holdings. The cuvée is the only Clos de Vougeot wine assembled from 10 parcels distributed throughout the enclosure of Clos de Vougeot.

 

Chateau du Clos de Vougeot by its walled vineyard.

 

Then, there’s the Échezeaux Cuvée de l’Érable (to be tasted), on the other hand, which came from a reported 0.35 hectares.

Griotte-Chambertin Cuvée du Saule (to be tasted) brought a much longer relationship into the new label. Its principal source was the Chézeaux parcel Laurent had worked during his Domaine Ponsot years, about 0.89 hectares, supplemented by purchased grapes. Jasper Morris MW scored the 2019 vintage with 96-99 points from barrel. This was one of the earliest confirmations that the expertise of Laurent’s former address had arrived intact under his own name.

 

The Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru (Source: Vinfolio)

 

Finally, there’s the Clos Saint-Denis Cuvée du Merisier (to be tasted), the wild cherry that became the house’s emblem. This was sourced from the Mercier family’s 0.38-hectare old vine parcel planted in 1905, another vineyard whose wine Laurent had known since Domaine Ponsot began making Clos Saint-Denis in 1982. These were the vines at the centre of the Kurniawan impossible-vintage story, and now produce one of the most celebrated wines of Laurent’s new venture. Both Burgundy experts Morris and Bill Nanson described this as amongst Burgundy’s great wines.

 

The Clos Saint-Denis walled vineyard (Source: Grands Bourgognes)

 

All the bottles come in a silver-and-green presentation and are sealed with Ardea Seal, a synthetic stopper developed through Laurent’s own research over many years. It combines a shield in contact with the wine, a rigid supporting frame and an elastic outer body – helping to regulate oxygen entry while avoiding cork taint. And just like a traditional cork, it pops out with a corkscrew.

Drawing on his prior experience with counterfeiters like Kurniawan, Laurent also decided to design his bottles to support convenient electronic authentication. His Premier Cru and Grand Cru bottles are fitted with NFC chips beneath tamper-evident capsules that drinkers could scan with their smartphones. Special circuitry beneath the seal breaks once the bottle is opened – a clever bit of engineering.

 

 

Laurent’s concern with auctions also extends to the fact that wines may not have been stored in the right conditions. To ensure consumers only receive his wines in good condition, he even developed a heat-sensitive indicator which appears as a green dot on his labels. The dot is designed to turn permanently from green to black once the internal temperature of the wine has crossed 28°C. Cases are then fitted with eProvenance sensors designed to record temperature every three hours for fifteen years.

It is an elaborate level of attention given to a bottle after selling it.

 

The challenge of working with Burgundy’s shifting sands

It is by now palpable to everyone in Burgundy that the ever-increasing price of grapes and wine has led to a shrinking range of Grand Cru names available to winemakers. Morris has written about purchasing costs moving out of line with the market. Houses have to become more selective about their expensive purchases to ensure their customers are able to continue drinking their wine – a pressure most apparent in the disappearance of Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet from Laurent’s portfolio.

 

A Montrachet vineyard behind its stone wall.

 

Laurent has spoken about how this pressure extends to old multi-generational Burgundian families who struggle to retain ownership of their land. The irony is that a vineyard’s soaring market value in Burgundy’s case rarely brings a matching rise in the income it generates. As wealthy investors drive land prices up, the inheritance tax bill inadvertently expands. Families may inherit valuable land without having the cash to meet the resulting tax bill. This then becomes a disturbing cycle – as rising valuations put pressure on family ownership, they also create opportunities for the same wealthy buyers whose spending helped push prices upwards.

This is one winemaker who hopes that prices will finally fall so that more drinkers can afford to taste his wine. Until the situation abates, Laurent Ponsot has to adapt accordingly. His wines are not permanent fixtures.

 

As said earlier, the house has decided not to make the prestigious Bâtard-Montrachet Cuvée des Lilas and Montrachet Cuvée des Orchidées since 2019.

Then in 2021, the Mercier family sold Domaine des Chézeaux. As ownership of the land shifted, the 2023 vintage of Clos Saint-Denis became the last vintage to be made by Laurent Ponsot from those same 100-year-old vines – a final send-off for a wine that has been part of Laurent’s working life for over forty years, and whose fraud investigation made Laurent famous beyond Burgundy.

Laurent has also given up the principal leased holdings in Griotte-Chambertin and Chambolle-Musigny Les Charmes, while emerging with ownership of a small Griotte parcel of about 0.11 hectares to allow him to continue making wine from these appellations even as vineyard arrangements change.

 

Laurent Ponsot with his son Clément (Source: Bill Nanson, Burgundy Report)

 

Laurent’s son, Clément, is increasingly central to the continuing work. Working as Managing Director since 2018, Clément runs and develops the business alongside his father.

While the sources of fruit may change, important cuvée names are preserved for posterity – Cuvée du Merisier continues to retain the Clos Saint-Denis appellation and its place in the house’s identity, albeit with fruit from other growers. For those of us following the house, these are reasons to remain curious about the coming vintages shaped by father and son.

Wine communication and winemaking are evolving too. Laurent Ponsot announced a redesign from the 2025 vintage, bringing additional information on each bottle to customers via a QR code on the front label.

 

Laurent Ponsot among the vats of his new winery (Source: Bill Nanson, Burgundy Report)

 

Having spent many years questioning cork closures, Laurent has also recently begun investigating whether oak barrels themselves might be totally dispensed with in winemaking. Old barrels are often used by winemakers – not to impart flavour – but to allow gentle exposure to air through the porous wood. Laurent believes stainless-steel tanks can be used instead, although how much oxygen should be gradually introduced to the wine remains an open question that the man continues to grapple with.

Luckily for Maison Laurent Ponsot, its founder is only 72 years young and has plenty of time to work these questions out. In early 2026, the vigorous winemaker affirmed that he would like to continue working for another 30 years. The harvest continues, vintage after vintage, with a father-and-son team shaping the future of the house, but with some principles that remain recognisably Laurent from a past life back at Domaine Ponsot.

 

 

Meanwhile, outside the vineyards, Laurent’s story continues to attract a growing base of true-crime lovers. His instrumental detective work, which led to his memorable Burgundy masterclass within a federal criminal trial in New York has been published as FBI: Fausses Bouteilles Investigation (2023) in both French and English editions – co-authored by Laurent himself. Film rights to the book have been sold. When asked who would be portraying him in the Hollywood movie adaptation, Laurent suggested George Clooney, partly in jest.

 

We recently had the very special opportunity to taste Laurent Ponsot's new chapter in ten bottles, from the Maison's Meursault to a range of its most iconic Grand Cru cuvées including the Clos Saint-Denis. These incredible wines are available from Wine Clique Singapore – Laurent Ponsot's appointed distributor here!

P.s.: We thank Mr Lee Ming San for an extraordinarily insightful seminar on the Burgundy region and Maison Laurent Ponsot!

Wine Review: Laurent Ponsot Meursault Cuvée du Pandoréa

Village Chardonnay from the 2018 vintage. Named after the flowering climber Pandorea. Sourced from six suppliers. Purchased as unfermented grape juice (must). Matured without new oak.

The hot, dry conditions of 2018 did not persuade Laurent to abandon his preference for later harvesting of his whites. 

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Straw.

Aroma: Generous, ripe held taut by a chalky spine before ending in nuttiness. It opens immediately with ripe apricots, pears and bruised apples, lifted by light white florals, orange blossoms. Green plums alongside racy fresh lemons and green apple. Beneath that, salted almonds and hazelnuts, and a touch of buttered toast. A savoury thread of fennel and thyme, then a touch of fresh ginger. There’s also a chalky mineral impression.

Taste: Creamy, precise with stone and orchard fruits always within reach. Medium-bodied and light footed. It opens with a viscous texture and a lees-like creaminess carrying through vanilla. Apricots, bruised apples and pear fill the middle, with concentrated lemon giving the fruit a brighter edge. Develops towards savoury richness of hazelnut and bread dough threaded with fennel. The acidity is fresh and precise, balancing and lifting the creaminess throughout, keeping the palate clearly defined as wet stone carries into the finish.

Finish: Long, savoury and saline. Carrying bread dough and a light yeasty creaminess into gentle, spicy dried ginger and a pinch of nutmeg. Lemon peel and toasted nuts remain as stone, orchard fruits and honey recede into a trace. The close grows savoury with a lingering salty stony impression and dried lemon peel.

My Thoughts

Ripe and accommodating, with freshness running through it. This is a very recognisable and appealing expression of Meursault – generous in its ripe orchard fruit, nutty richness and creamy texture, yet never heavy. Freshness citrus keep the bread dough and vanilla cream outlined - there is substance without excessive weight. The long finish leaves a distinctly savoury impression of dried lemon peel, toasted nuts and saline stone.

The ripe apricot character very much fits the warm vintage of 2018, whilst the vivid acidity keeps the wine lively at all times. The fruit remains generous, with layers of blossom, herbs and ginger around it, while stony minerality becomes more prominent towards the close.

Wine Review: Laurent Ponsot Meursault-Blagny 1er Cru Cuvée du Myosotis

Premier Cru Chardonnay from the 2018 vintage, sourced from Blagny, the hamlet high on the slope between Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet. Named after Myosotis, the forget-me-not flower. Purchased as must. Matured without new oak.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Straw.

Aroma: Bright, lifted florals, zesty, with cream held in reserve. It opens with citrus and lemon balm, alongside white florals of orange blossom and elderflower. Beneath that we have golden apples, greengage and apricots, with pineapple adding a tropical accent. A soft base of yoghurt, fresh cream and vanilla.

Taste: Concentrated and tensile, with a creamy thread running through. It’s medium bodied, with a creamy breadth to the palate. Golden apple and quince sit alongside apricot and Saturn peach, with greengage, Japanese ume, plum and lemon adding a tart edge. The acidity is bright but tightly wound. There’s a firm mineral character beneath the fruit, with dry holding citrus zest carrying into the finish.

Finish: Long, juicy, energetic and dry around the edges. Green ume and red plums carrying through alongside citrus peel and lemon pastilles. Lingering saline edge.

My Thoughts

This is a Meursault built around freshness, focus, concentration. Beside the Pandoréa, it trades some of the nutty, bready generosity for a more floral perfume and a firmer, drier palate. The cream stays in support, giving the apple and stone fruit breadth while the dry grip remains evident.

There is plenty of fruit beneath the acidic tension, acidity and minerality contributing to freshness, while the long finish retains juiciness even as the saline edge becomes more apparent.

Wine Review: Laurent Ponsot Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières Cuvée de l’Hellébore

Premier Cru Chardonnay from the 2018 vintage, sourced from Perrières - a site known for its stony character. Named after the hellebore flower. Purchased as must. Matured without new oak.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Straw.

Aroma: Broad and buttery, cut through by flint and green fruits. It opens rich and dairy-laden, with a persistent bone-dryness. Yuzu and grapefruits along with a light savoury cheesiness reminiscent of the bloomy rind of Brie, alongside sliced sourdough bread and toasted hazelnut. Green apples, red plums, and lemon peel tautness, developing into fresh apricots and pear cider. Light lilac wafting in along with a dry flintiness.

Taste: Plush, rounded, but chiselled and dry at times. Full-bodied and dense, it opens with green plums, lemon curd, bread though along with a lactic creaminess. Acidity is bright lively, maintaining a juicy profile throughout. By mid-palate there is a fine, chalky grip and wet stone salinity leading into the finish.

Finish: Medium in length, saline and dry, with a fresh citrus-leaf lift. Bread dough carries through alongside citrus peel, soft yuzu and a little green plum. There’s a touch of iodine, with white pepper emerging as the fruit recedes. Yuzu and green lime leaves linger.

My Thoughts

This is the most opulent of the three Meursaults, with a full, rounded body and a dry, stony core keeping that richness in balance. It is weightier and more buttery than the Myosotis, with the lemon curd and savoury dairy character giving it substantial breadth. The acidity, salinity and fine chalky grip keeps the palate defined from palate into finish.

There’s also several distinct forms of minerality accenting the butter: flint on the nose, salt on the palate and chalk in the texture. The finish shifts towards yuzu, lime leaves and white pepper, leaving a fresher, far more delicate impression than the broad aroma and opening suggests.

Wine Review: Laurent Ponsot Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru Cuvée du Kalimeris

Grand Cru Chardonnay from the 2018 vintage, sourced from six suppliers across the villages of Ladoix-Serrigny, Aloxe-Corton and Pernand-Vergelesses from the hill of Corton in the Côte de Beaune. Named after the kalimeris - a daisy-like flower common in East Asia. Purchased as must. Matured without new oak.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Straw.

Aroma: Poised and stony, with expressive fruitiness. Led by orchard fruit and bright white florals - pear, apple and mirabelle plum are backed by a gentle nuttiness reminiscent of almond Danish pastry, with vanilla, light baking spices and a little toast. There’s a faint wisp of smoke, alongside light granite notes and a touch of iodine. Fennel and green herbs emerge with time.

Taste: Compact, chiselled with considerable depth. Medium-bodied and creamy, it carries a concentrated core of ripe apricot, alongside Saturn peach and pear, with tangerine peel adding a brighter citrus edge. Lightly toasted grains sit beneath the fruit, with a clear wet-stone minerality. Acidity is incisive and finely drawn.

Finish: Long, juicy, creamy and stony. Pear and apricot carrying through - fruit remaining juicy and pulpy, with a fresh bitterness of citrus pith. A light chalkiness in the background, with soft yeasty creaminess and nuttiness lingering.

My Thoughts

This has the greatest depth and persistence of the whites. Compared with the Perrières, it feels more compact and less overtly buttery, with more incisive acidity. The ripe apricot and pear remain concentrated, while the lighter toast and creamy notes allow the fruit and wet-stone character to come through clearly.

The length is particularly impressive. Pear and apricot stay juicy well into the finish, accompanied by citrus-pith bitterness, chalk and a gentle creamy nuttiness. It feels cooler and more restrained than its ripe fruit might initially suggest, with the acidity maintaining freshness throughout. Finally, the concentration and long finish give it Grand Cru substance without requiring the full-bodied weight of the Perrières.

Wine Review: Laurent Ponsot Chambolle-Musigny Cuvée de la Violette

Village-level Pinot Noir of the 2021 vintage from Chambolle-Musigny in the Côte de Nuits, assembled from about 10 vineyard sources. Named after the violet. Matured without new oak.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Ruby.

Aroma: Dark-fruited, earthy, brooding and dense. It opens deep and concentrated, with dark cherries at the centre, brighter wild strawberries and cranberries sitting above, and a flick of orange peel. There’s a stemmy edge to the fruit. Some violets bring a floral lift, with potpourri further back, alongside a touch of breakfast tea, faint clove and a dusting of cinnamon bark. Beneath is a pronounced earthiness of wet soil, damp leaves and mushroom, with a hint of garrigue. A flinty accent runs through.

Taste: Structural, lively, built around tart red fruits and still quite light on its feet. It is medium-bodied, with firm, fine-grained tannins framing expressive dark cherries, red plum and pomegranate. There’s a light liquorice edge beneath the fruit. Acidity is lively and well knitted into the body, keeping the fruit fresh through that tightly built structure. Touch of earth and violets.

Finish: Dry, floral and appetising. Dark cherries carry through, with black cherry and dark plum skins joined by anise and white pepper. A flinty mineral thread holds through the medium-long, persistent finish, with dried florals lingering as the fruit recedes.

My Thoughts

This is a darker, slightly more muscular Chambolle, demonstrating elegance with the fine grain of the tannins and the freshness running through the fruit. It has quite a firm structure here for a village wine, yet it remains light-footed. Depth and earthiness on the nose, definition on the palate, then a dry floral finish that keeps it appetising.

The dark cherries, woodland earthiness and firm structure appear to give it a more brooding character than the perfumed, silky impression typically associated with Chambolle. Still, we find the violets and brighter berries there in the nose and back-palate all the same.

Wine Review: Laurent Ponsot Vosne-Romanée Cuvée du Cerisier

Village-level Pinot Noir of the 2021 vintage, from Vosne-Romanée in the Côte de Nuits,  sourced from around three suppliers. Named after the cerisier, or cherry tree. Matured without new oak.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Ruby.

Aroma: Heady and perfumed, with an intriguing aroma of an old library. Opening with a heady perfume of hyacinths, lilacs, and potpourri further back. Red cherries and redcurrants bring a lively fruitiness, with dark plum underneath. Vanila, black pepper, cinnamon and oak sitting alongside the fruit. Some red tea fresh eartiness that leads into a mustiness (or vellichor) of library books and magazine paper, recalling a second-hand bookshop. Heady florals over a gently musty depth.

Taste: Soft, silky. Forward but darkens into an increasingly autumnal profile. Medium in body, soft and supple, it starts gently with cherries, cherry skins and pomegranate. Fruit gains more weight through the mid-palate, moving towards black plum and cassis, with vanilla and oak in support. The tannins feel fine and soft-grained. Initially juicy, the acidity tightens as the wine heads towards the finish, with earthiness and dried brown leaves becoming more prominent.

Finish: Medium-long and earthy. Predominantly earthy, with a dusty quality beneath red apple skins, faint stone fruit and light florals. A gentle trace of new leather .

My Thoughts

I found this the more immediately open of the two village wines, with softer tannins and more forward fruit than the Chambolle. It’s expressive right from the first impression - heady florals while the old-paper aromas and the progression towards dried leaves and leather bring an autumnal depth.

It feels balanced and open, with the perfume, fruit and earthy undertones each contributing something distinct.

Wine Review: Laurent Ponsot Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru Cuvée du Cèdre

Grand Cru Pinot Noir of the 2019 vintage, from grapes sourced from seven suppliers within the walled Clos de Vougeot vineyard in the Côte de Nuits. Named after the cedar. Matured without new oak.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Deep ruby.

Aroma: Dense, fruity, savoury, with concentrated red and black fruits in equal measure. It opens with tart red berries; a touch of wild strawberry lifted by the tartness of morello cherries. Black cherries, cassis and plums give the fruit a darker depth, with a distinct plum-skin edge. Rose petals and peony sit above it, alongside a light touch of anise. A gently gamey savouriness over fresh earth.

Taste: Polished, clean, with tart red fruit over fine tannins. Medium bodied, with a rounded shape and a supple, yielding middle. Bright red apples, then tart cherries, hawthorn, wild strawberries, backed by a deeper layer of black cherries, cassis and plums. The acidity is measured yet fresh, keeping the fruit expressive and the palate balanced. Very fine-grained tannins gradually ease through the sip, leaving a juicy impression with a gentle salinity. A light smoky undertone.

Finish: Long and persistent, with soft spice beneath dried florals and gentle herbs. A faint thread of dried thyme and a touch of bay leaf with lavender lingering.

My Thoughts

A polished, finely built Clos de Vougeot. There’s substance in the darker fruit and a savoury base of game and fresh earth, while the tart red fruits and floral perfume keep the wine expressive. On the palate, the yielding middle and very fine tannins give that depth a rounded, cohesive shape. The structure is present throughout, delivered with great polish.

This shows a particularly elegant side of Clos de Vougeot. The balance comes through in how the substantial fruit remains fresh and juicy, before the finish gives more space to dried flowers, herbs and lavender. It feels very complete, with the long aromatic close extending the wine’s interest beyond its fruit.

Wine Review: Laurent Ponsot Échezeaux Grand Cru Cuvée de l’Érable

Grand Cru Pinot Noir of the 2019 vintage from a 0.35-hectare area of Échezeaux in Flagey-Échezeaux, in the Côte de Nuits. Named after the maple tree. Matured without new oak.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Deep ruby.

Aroma: Aromatic and exotic, with florals, incense and spices. Intensely floral from the outset, with violets and rose petals coming forward, accompanied by a hint of iris. Beneath the flowers we have depths of tart redcurrants, raspberries and pomegranate, outlined by a twist of orange rind, with black plum and blackcurrant providing a darker fruit base. A touch of tea connects with the exotic spices and incense-like agarwood. Soft savoury herbs weave through a light earthiness of soil and a granite-like mineral impression.

Taste: Supple and perfumed, with ripe dates beneath tart fruit. It moves fluidly across the palate, carrying expressive fruit within a fine, muscular structure. Tart red fruits, particularly redcurrants, sit over rich sweetness of dates, figs with bright, fresh acidity keeping the profile lively and fresh. Tannins are firm but powdery. Soft earthiness and dried florals gradually emerge as the palate develops. There is an elegance to the way it carries its breadth, remaining supple and perfumed whilst retaining a substantial grip.

Finish: Long, firm tannins, sweetly floral and spiced. Light red fruits and berries carry long, accompanied by exotic spices, agarwood and a dusting of cocoa powder. The tannins become firmer towards the end. Sweet floral perfume lingers alongside the incense-like spice.

My Thoughts

This is Grand Cru concentration with an unexpectedly floral grace! The Érable brings together a generous perfume and a supple, flowing palate, with the tart red fruit and bright acidity keeping its riper depth lively. This combination gives the wine an expressive character from the outset, whilst the muscular, finely textured tannins become more apparent towards the firmer close.

Compared with the Cèdre, I found this more floral and more supple. The perfume seems to come forward more readily, carrying the fruit through to a long finish of flowers, incense-like spice and cocoa. There is substantial structure beneath that yielding texture.

Wine Review: Laurent Ponsot Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru Cuvée du Saule

Grand Cru Pinot Noir of the 2019 vintage, sourced from Griotte-Chambertin in Gevrey-Chambertin, from a prized 0.89-hectare Chézeaux parcel farmed under lease, and supplemented with grapes from growers that Laurent has a long-standing relationship with. Named after the willow. Matured without new oak.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Deep ruby.

Aroma: Lively, tart red fruits over spice and savouriness. A burst of immediate fruits with sour cherries, raspberries and redcurrants at the forefront, then darker depths of cherry skins and mulberries. Followed by clove, cinnamon and a crack of black pepper, with fragrant sandalwood woven through the spices - a light dusting of cocoa powder. Beneath that an earthiness of forest floor and lichen, accompanied by hints of roasted meat and a wisp of smoke. The profile remains bright and red-fruit-driven, with gradually growing depths of baking spices and savoury earthiness.

Taste: Firm, brooding, with concentrated cherry, with a silky texture held by the most muscular frame. It opens dense and velvety with a concentrated core of cherries backed by dark berries and plum. Tannins are muscular, giving the fruit a substantial framework, whilst the acidity keeps the profile fresh and juicy. A wet-stone impression runs beneath the dark fruit, with aromatic spices gradually becoming more prominent towards the finish.

Finish: Long, aromatic, spiced and rocky. Cherry fruit persists at length, taking on the tartness of morello cherries alongside dark plum skin and a touch of cocoa. Aromatic spices and sandalwood carry the perfume onwards, with a granite-like mineral impression lingering beneath.

My Thoughts

This is an emphatic combination of concentrated fruit, muscular tannins and spicy aromatics. Of the Grand Cru reds, the Saule feels the firmly structured, yet the silkiness of its texture and the freshness of its cherry fruit keep it very enjoyable and enticing at all times. On the nose, the darker berries, light roasted-meat character and woodland earthiness give the tart fruit a savoury depth, before spices and sandalwood carry its fragrance into the long finish.

Compared with the Érable, I found this firmer in tannin and more generously spiced. The Érable’s floral perfume and supple movement give way here to a more muscular presentation, with concentrated cherries at its centre.

Wine Review: Laurent Ponsot Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru Cuvée du Merisier

Grand Cru Pinot Noir of the 2019 vintage, sourced under a métayage agreement from the Mercier family's prized century-old vines from a 0.38-hectare parcel in Clos Saint-Denis in Morey-Saint-Denis. Named after the wild cherry. Matured without new oak and without added sulphur.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Deep ruby.

Aroma: Deeply fruited, with a growing floral lift edging darker over earth. Opens with a rich red-fruit perfume, bringing together tart hawthorn, wild strawberries and raspberries, with red cherries shading into darker cherry fruit. Violets, lilac and potpourri rise above the fruit, followed by red tea and anise. Fine smoky accents, sweet tobacco and an earthy base. With some time and air, the red fruit and florals become brighter and more expressive, opening up further layers of fragrance.

Taste: Full-bodied, polished and densely dark-fruited over a mineral spine. Dark plums form the core, accompanied by a flash of ripe blood orange and a light minty freshness. Tannins are rounded and firm. Bright acidity lifts the concentrated fruit, keeping the palate fresh. A mineral backbone carries through towards the finish.

Finish: Persistent, concentrated and dark. More on concentrated dark fruit here, with black cherries, blackberries, dark plums and cassis carrying through a very long finish. Wet stone and a touch of graphite sit beneath, joined by light leather and a gentle, stem-like bitterness. Dark cherry, stone, leather and savoury nuts linger well after the swallow.

My Thoughts

This is the most satisfying red of the afternoon. The Merisier brings together aromatic complexity, density and persistence, with just as present freshness and definition all integrated. The nose keeps giving with time, becoming brighter in its red fruit and floral perfume, whilst the palate delivers a deeper concentration of dark fruit, lifted by mint and that flash of blood orange. It feels powerful and polished without becoming heavy.

What makes this particularly compelling is how clearly those smaller details register within such a substantial wine. The ripe, finely grained tannins give it firmness, and the bright acidity keeps its density lifted, delivering power without heaviness. That clarity continues into the finish, where dark cherry, stone and light leather remain recognisable well after the swallow. A fitting finale to the Laurent Ponsot range!

@CharsiuCharlie