Alcohol: 13%
Grape(s): 100% Pinot Noir
Localization: Côte d'Or, Burgundy, France
Tasting Notes: This vintage presents a fresh and elegant take on Pommard, featuring vibrant red fruit—think cherry, raspberry, and dried cranberry—layered over soft tannins and balanced acidity. Subtle oak notes of clove and nutmeg add warmth, while hints of forest floor and chalk lend an earthy complexity. Lighter in body than expected for the appellation, it’s a graceful expression of Pinot Noir that favors finesse over power.
Notes: 100% of the grapes are destemmed and placed in cement and stainless steel vats. The grape must is chilled to eight degrees and then allowed to undergo spontaneous fermentation, which typically lasts about two to three weeks, depending on the vintage conditions. They are lightly extracted using the infusion approach, which means that very little is done to disturb the grapes during fermentation and maceration. Once pressed, it’s settled in a tank overnight and gravity-fed into a barrel, where the wines stay without racking until preparations for bottling. As he does with the white wines, the first sulfite addition is made at bottling and they are spared excess use of new oak during the aging.
Food Pairing: From poultry to rustic game, the Rodolphe Demougeot Pommard Les Vignots finds its perfect culinary companions in dishes that echo its elegance and earthy charm. Duck breast with cherry reduction and roast chicken scented with herbs de Provence highlight the wine’s vibrant red fruit, while veal medallions in mushroom sauce and rosemary-crusted lamb chops draw out its subtle forest floor notes. For deeper, wilder pairings, venison loin glazed with juniper berries and wild boar ragù over pappardelle offer a savory counterpoint to its finesse. Vegetarian options, such as mushroom risotto, beetroot tart with goat cheese, and lentil stew with thyme, showcase its versatility. A cheese board featuring aged Comté, Tomme de Savoie, or a gently chilled Époisses complements the experience with creamy, nutty depth.
The Domain: The path to Rodolphe Demougeot’s current level of quality took a while after taking over the family domaine in 1992. Since then, he’s amassed eight hectares of vines in the Côte de Beaune and year by year upped the ante on his attention to detail in the cellar and vineyard, raising his own personal bar and capturing the attention of his illustrious neighbors with more enviable vineyard stables in Meursault and Pommard.
Rodolphe explains that he “learned how to do perfect chemical farming from his family and had to deprogram his vineyards and himself, which took a lot of time”—a courageous and an evolved sense of self and humility to admit. Another telling quote of his candid and honest character is that he needed to learn to be a good farmer first, and then learn to improve his performance in the cellar. If only everyone approached life with this kind of blatant and unflinching honesty about their own process!
Since the mid-2000s, synthetic treatments of herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers were systematically abandoned one step at a time. Then his interest in the inexplicable but observable energies of the cosmos and its influence on grapes and wine came to be central to his decision-making. The moon serves as his compass for timing processes during growth, farming, harvesting, processing, and bottling.
Today, Rodolphe’s vineyards are impressively farmed and have as much life as any organic or biodynamic vineyard we’ve set foot in. He’s renowned for the quality of his farming by top growers in his area, and with all the talent in his hometown of Meursault, that says something. He plows most of his vineyards by tractor, but in some of his top sites, like the Pommard, 1er Cru Les Charmots, he works with a horse. His cluster selection is made early in the season to concentrate the energy of the vines to fewer clusters through the fruiting season in the pursuit of quality over quantity. Everything is done by hand and under severe scrutiny within his humble Côte d’Or holdings.
