2022 Pommard Clos de la Commaraine 1er Cru

To counterbalance my calorific diet of Burgundian cuisine, all those l’escargots and all that coq au vin, I jog from my apartment in Beaune down to Pommard and back each Sunday morning. It’s a picturesque 10k that wends its way through Beaune’s Premier Crus, which, to my mind, is one of the prettiest in the Côte d’Or. The brand new luxury hotel being constructed by the owners of Château de la Commaraine is basically my turnaround, not that you can see much behind the erected temporary walls. “We are still building the hotel that should be finished...” Jean-Luc Vitoux tells me before pausing, asking me not to specify the date. I have on good authority heard that the construction has not been as straightforward as planned (is it ever?), not the least potentially depriving the inhabitants of Pommard of a regular water supply as the hotel intends to install a swimming pool and spa, as well as the 37 rooms and two restaurants. You could well argue that the hotel epitomizes how the region has changed over the last decade, as investors have moved in and turned the Côte d’Or into a luxury destination for the wealthy to drink luxury wines. Salubrious destination hotels like this one will not be the last.

Behind the hotel lies the monopole of Clos de la Commaraine, originally owned by Bachelet-Vercherre, who then sold the fruit to Louis Jadot, who bottled it as a cuvée until 2017, when the present owners bought the property. “We split the vineyard into separate plots, and we hope to have a massal selection program in the future.” This is clearly an ambitious, long-term project. Of course, that does not mean I automatically shower the wines with praise, and high ambitions must be translated into the only place that matters – the wine glass. They are clearly doing many right things: organic and biodynamic viticulture and plowing by horse. At the same time, there is no doubt that the level of new oak, 50% across the Pommard Clos de la Commaraine and the handful of augmented cuvées, outweighs the level of fruit concentration, resulting in enjoyable, if slightly unbalanced, wines. When pressed, director Jean-Luc Vitoux said that he plans to use less new wood in the future. In addition, the minimal use of sulfur is fine, but it renders the wines rather generic. Sure, it’s fashionable. That doesn’t mean the wine is better. There are good intentions here, but it’s a work in progress that will yield better wines in the future.