For Les Rugiens and Les Epenots. From Côte-d'or - viticulture. Pommard veut ses grands crus (in french).
I had heard talk about this before and about Volnay too but I thought they would not pursue that route as they would lose the ability to have Pommard on the label.
Thoughts?
I am not the most knowledgable here but I would vote against this if I was part of the AOC regulating body. So many more deserve this. Both are very nice terroirs but not Grand Cru. I am sure they will make a historical argument here which might gain acceptance. FWIW. (BTW, you could make the same argument for Les St Georges in Nuits)
Says who? Sounded like a smart statement to me!
Would stand to reason that Clos Epeneaux is more worthy than these 2, although, amongst non-monopole, these are 2 of the best.
I can’t speak generally because I don’t drink alot of Pommard but a recent 2008 Voillot Les Rugiens was easily grand cru status. A wonderful and emotionally thrilling wine in the elegant and beautful style. Epenots can blow my mind too.
That said, from a selfish point of view, I hope it doesnt happen.
Ian – Clos des Epeneaux is an Epenots.
I’ve been to more than a few blind tastings of older grands crus and top premiers crus where Rugiens was the class of the field. And some of the best Rugiens today would fall about the middle of the grand cru hierarcy. I think it is definitely worthy of promotion. For Epenots, the case is not as strong, but still worth considering.
However, be careful what you ask for. When I questioned one owner of Gevrey-Chambertin Les Combottes about whether he thought it deserved promotion to grand cru, he said he’d rather have it as a top premier cru than a lower rung grand cru. I think he’s right on that.
Andrew – re losing the name Pommard, my friends in the trade tell me it is actually a drag as many customers refuse to consider anything from Pommard. That’s not the case for Volnay and thus could provide a reason why Volnay will not follow.
Add on edit: Another reason why Volnay may not follow is that the wines already fetch high prices vis-a-vis their peers. That is not really the case for Pommard and Nuits-Saint-Georges, and so possibly the perception of the producers in both those latter towns that they need a grand cru locomotive to raise the profile and pull the rest of the wines along.
I am against Pommard becoming a Grand Cru. Not because they are undeserving, but because the pricing will undoubtedly increase with the change in their status. I like buying Rugiens and Epenots for under a bill.
That’s clearly the thought, although there are some that are becoming quite expensive already and they may not be able to raise their prices all that much. Clos des Epeneaux is about $120 here and I received an offer for a Rugiens at $150 today; is anyone going to pay $225-250 for them just because they’re grand cru? I don’t think so.
At any rate, as with Les Saint-Georges, this is just the beginning of a long process and there will not be a decision for many years.
So does that mean the name would change and they would lose their monopole status???
Apparently Thibault Liger-Belair does make the same argument. But he is the biggest land holder in Les St Georges…
It is a climat in Epenots. So it is, and would remain, a monopole in the same sense that Rousseau’s Clos des Ruchottes is a monopole that is part of Ruchottes-Chambertin.
Rugiens was always my favorite Pommard but there’s a big difference btw Bas and Hauts, Bas being the finer and deserving of a Grand Cru status.
Leo – Yours is the standard commentary, yet there is almost universal agreement that clearly the best Rugiens being produced today is from de Courcel, wich is from the upper part, on white soils. I asked Yves Confuron, who makes the wines at de Courcel, about this and his explanation is that because the upper part is steeper and more difficult to work, it was largely unplanted for a long time and so its potential was not really known. I don’t know what historical evidence there is to support his explanation, but it sounds logical. Anyway, de Courcel’s Rugiens disproves the old saw in my view, and indeed when one goes around and asks the other producers where their holdings are, I submit that you don’t find any real pattern that allows the conclusion that the lower part is better.
Who’s your favorite producer en Bas?
Interesting thread, thanks for the contributions all! Funny, Courcel Rugiens was always my favorite Pommard. I would think Les St. Georges or or Chambolle Amoureuses might come first but I wonder how much the dearth of Grand Cru wines in the Cotes de Beaune might make it easier from a marketing standpoint. I can see how it might help from a marketing standpoint for Pommard. The Cotes de Nuits Grand Cru group is a crowded field already, would GC status for LSG or Amoureuses really make as big of an impact for those wines from a marketing standpoint?
Brent – I would think it would for Nuits, as it has no grands cru, and so suffers in the eyes of many compared to Gevrey, Morey, Chambolle, Vougeot, Flagey, and Vosne, all of which have grands crus. I don’t think it makes a difference for Amoureuses as these days the wines are priced like grands crus and Chambolle already has Musigny and Bonnes-Mares.
With all this talk of upgrading to GC, has there been any discussion of “cleaning up” existing GCs like Vougeot?
Well, setting aside our selfish interests as consumers, I think Rugiens together with Les St. Georges are the strongest candidates for upgrades in the Cote d’Or. Epenots I’m not sold on, although I guess it satisfies the test of comparing well against weaker grand crus. Rugiens and LSG can compare well against the best grand crus.
For me it’s hard to pick a favorite Rugiens among Courcel, Montille, and Jadot. But I stopped buying Courcel when the price more than doubled. The Jadot Rugiens might be the single greatest value in Burgundy at the moment; I paid $40 for the 2008.
Never happen I would bet. Just a hunch.
I agree with Don – Clos Vougeot has an iconic nature for Burgundy that precludes any change. For some others, there can be and have been changes. For example, Echézeaux’s boundaries change from time to time, and so Sylvain Cathiard’s premier cru Vosne-En Orveaux was at one time classified as Echézeaux.
I’m with Claude on three things:
Rugiens is worthy, maybe not Epenots though, as great as it is. But Rugiens is IMO at least as worthy as (and I’d argue more wothy than) people’s favorite CdN vineyards like CSJ or Amoureuses.
It’s probably better to be a top 1er than a lower level grand cru.
Even if it changes, it probably wouldn’t have affected pricing that much. The best Rugiens are already priced above some grand crus. The quality of the vineyard is already priced in. Same goes with Volnay.
Cheers,
-Robert