2019 Domaine Lejeune 'Les Grand Epenots' Pommard Premier Cru Rouge

• Pure Premier Cru Bourgogne Rouge
• 98 Point Vintage, Wine Advocate
• Female Owner and Winemaker
  
• Traditional Winemaking, Grapes Crushed by Foot
• Family Owned & Operated Since 1783
• Free Shipping on 12 or More Bottles 
  

About the Wine

This family Domaine traces its ancestry back as far as 1783. For five generations Domaine Lejeune passed from aunt to niece. The Domaine takes its name from Maxime Lejeune who passed in 1864 but built the estate to over 50 acres. Today Domaine Lejeune is owned by the Jullien de Pommerol family. François Jullien de Pommerol (former enology professor at Beaune's Lycée Viticole) takes charge of the vineyard and the winemaking.

Today, the winery owns about 25 acres across eight single vineyards, focused in Pommard. The quantity of wine produced from these single vineyards is tiny. The red winemaking here can only be described as traditional. Open wooden vat fermentation, one of which, encircled by 17 hoops of white birch, is the oldest of its kind in the entire Burgundy region.

The objective here is to fashion Pommard in the traditional style, with a solid potential for cellaring and aging. The method of vinification is highly original. Each vat is filled to about 20-40% of its volume, with whole clusters or bunches. These are trodden by foot to release enough juice for the alcoholic fermentation to begin, precipitated by the action of natural yeasts found in the atmosphere and on the bloom of the grape at harvest time. This phase of the alcoholic fermentation lasts 5-7 days and is called "semi-carbonic maceration" as many of the berries ferment whole, rather than as a pulp. The grapes are encouraged to macerate or steep as long as possible, to provide color and tannin, often taking 21-26 days between the time the wooden vats are filled to the time the wine is run off into barrel. The wines are neither fined nor filtered before bottling.

Tasting Notes: 100% Pinot Noir. This is a gorgeous wine with a ripe nose of black cherry/plum, smoky herbs, and clay soil; very powerful and lush attack loads of dark fruits, a light, deft touch of oak, mushroom, and savory; really lovely texture; The finish is classic Pommard emphasizing clay soil, sweet oak wrapped in raspberry. Delicious!

Reviews

~92 VVwine

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