2017 Domaine Ponsot Morey-Saint-Denis Premier Cru Cuvee des Alouettes 750 ml

Domaine Ponsot’s Cuvée des Alouettes has always been an insider’s secret in the lineup of the iconic producer. Grown entirely in Mont Luisants—a vineyard that sits above and next to the Grand Cru Clos de la Roche, the source for Ponsot’s most prized bottling—it offers Grand Cru quality with a Premier Cru label—and price tag.

Mont Luisants sits on rocky, limestone-heavy soil that’s been coveted as a premier vineyard for centuries—in fact, part of the site extends down into Clos de la Roche (and gets bottled with the latter’s name and Grand Cru status). The cooler site thrived in the temperate 2017 vintage—a year that Ponsot nailed.

The Wine Advocate declared the producer produced “some of the wines of the vintage.” Their Alouettes shows off their skill and execution, married the beauty of the vintage, with soaring aromatics, sauvage-inflected dark-red fruit, and exotic spicing that are trademarks of the top wines of Morey.

Domaine Ponsot was among the first producers to estate bottle and is also one of the most meticulous in both the cellar and in the vineyard in all of Burgundy. They paid attention to clonal selection of vines long before most in the region, and many of the world’s most popular Pinot clones can trace their way to the Ponsot’s vineyards.

Farming is organic and the family is so detail-driven that no sorting table is required at the winery—anything resembling a sub-par berry is removed from the plant before picking and left in the vineyard. More importantly, that mindset carries over to every part of the winery’s operation, which is why the Ponsot wines are coveted by collectors worldwide.