"Epenots Magnified"
2010 Comte Armand Pommard
1er Cru Clos des Epeneaux
Pommard at its Most Profound
"This is relentlessly persistent with outstanding depth on the palate staining finish. Terrific." -Burghound
Like Nuits St. Georges and Volnay, Pommard is a Burgundy village with no Grand Cru. It does, though, have a couple overachieving 1er Crus.
Epenots, with Rugiens, undoubtedly produces Pommard's finest wines. And vintage after vintage, Comte Armand's Clos des Epeneaux is one of the top wines produced in all of Pommard.
As the Burghound note makes clear, Comte Armand's 2010 Clos des Epeneaux is a stunning example of just how monumental the wines from this site and this producer can be.
2010 is an ideal combination of pristine expression, acidity and concentration. The excitement over the vintage, especially amongst Burgundy purists, is entirely merited. What's scary, though, is that this excitement coupled with quantities being way down in 2010 and more people chasing Burgundy across the globe has led to more competition for the wines than I've ever seen before.
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You're advised to jump on top wines that are sharply priced in 2010. They're likely to disappear in no time.
Clos des Epeneaux is a walled monopole of Comte Armand that produces what's likely the finest example of the 1er Cru Epenots. Matt Kramer calls their Clos des Epeneaux "Epenots magnified."
Pommand, like Nuits St. Georges and Gevrey, produces dense, fiercely muscular wines. People looking for the delicacy and laciness of Chambolle or Volnay can be thrown off by Pommard.
However, with top 1er Crus like Epenots, there's no mistaking the grandeur, the complexity and outright breeding that Pommard is capable of. This is particularly true of Comte Armand's Clos des Epeneaux. It's fair to say that, at its best, Comte Armand's Clos des Epeneaux can hit heights that rival Grand Crus.
Clos des Epeneaux's density and formidable structure needs time to reveal just how profound it can be, but when it does - watch out! The longevity of Clos des Epeneaux is shocking. In 2008, Burghound more or less flipped over a bottle of 1864. His tasting note clearly shows the elite level that Clos des Epeneaux can inhabit, "the sheer depth and extract reminded me more than a little of some of the great bottles of Romanée-Conti and La Romanée that I have had from this era."
Our experience with recent vintages, like 93 and 99, have also been very impressive. Both clearly have long lives ahead of them, but you could clearly see the complexity that time is slowly starting to tease out of the wines.
To focus on how packed and powerful that Clos des Epeneaux can be misses a key element. With time, it's capable of supreme elegance. For all of its dark hued robust character, for all its tannic structure, there's an element of silk to the texture of the wine. 2010 promises to be the epitome of these qualities.
As I mentioned above, 2010 is a vintage that's impressive for its purity and overall quality, and absolutely frightening in terms of quantities.
Please give us your ideal order and we'll try our best.
To order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Ian McFadden
Director, Fine & Rare Wine
Crush Wine & Spirits