2018 Pommard Rugiens Hauts
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Tasting notes
The 2018 Pommard Les Rugiens 1er Cru has a luscious bouquet with red cherries, cassis and light floral scents blossoming with time in the glass. Quite Volnaysian in style. The palate is medium-bodied with a velvety entry, plush with saturated tannins, like the nose, more Volnay than Pommard. I appreciate the lingering pepperiness on the aftertaste, though it misses the delineation and precision of the best Rugiens and feels a bit dry. Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2018 red tasting.
Critic scores
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Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Neal Martin
More reviews and scores
The 2018 Pommard 1er Cru Rugiens-Hauts displays scents of cassis, cherries, dark chocolate, woodsmoke, rose petals and grilled meats, followed by a medium to full-bodied, elegantly layered and multidimensional palate that's succulent and refined, built around powdery tannins.
The 2018 Pommard Les Rugiens-Haut 1er Cru came across a little closed and reduced when I tasted it from a barrel sample that had not been racked. The palate is well balanced with crunchy red fruit laced with white pepper and fennel, quite structured but a little brittle in texture on the finish. Give this three or four years once in bottle.
50% whole bunch. 20% new oak. Over 14% alcohol, so no tariffs if he exports this to the US! Barrel sample. Much sweeter and more red fruited than the Blagny Pièce Sous le Bois. Open and inviting. Gorgeous fruit but Ben Leroux thinks it will close down and so should be drunk early, or late. More powerful than 2015. Powerful yet smooth and polished. Youthful, dense and yet finishes creamy and fresh. Long, too. Super-elegant Pommard but totally Pommard. ‘Always a battle with the tannins in Pommard’, he says. (JH)