Domaine Ponsot

[8] The planting of Aligoté was unusual at the time; most white wine production in Burgundy had leaned towards the more economically viable Chardonnay grape in the post-Phylloxera era.

[3] During 1934 and 1935, Hippolyte was active in defining the Appellation d'origine contrôlée system in Burgundy, something his prior training as a lawyer and diplomat was useful in.

[8] Their holdings expanded again in 1972, when Jean-Marie's wife, Jacqueline Ponsot Livera, inherited vines in Gevrey.

[9] Domaine Ponsot's wines were at the center of a scandal involving counterfeit bottles: in 2011, Rudy Kurniawan consigned several vintages of the domaine's wine for auction at the New York auction house of Acker, Merrall & Condit including Clos St. Denis 1945, 1949, 1959, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1971, and 1978, along with a 1929 Clos de la Roche.

He contacted the auction house, and flew to New York to see for himself that the lots (worth an estimated $603,000 — $853,334 in 2023 dollars[10]) were pulled from the sale.

After that point, he began working with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation in the matter of the faked wines.

[7] At harvest time (Domaine Ponsot is one of the last producers to pick grapes in the Côte de Nuits[6]), the grapes are selected in the vineyard (the domaine does not use a sorting table), picked into wicker baskets, generally not having been destemmed, for crushing on the winery's 1945-era vertical press.

It is aged up to 30 months in barrels that are a minimum of 5 years old, before bottling occurs during a time when there is both a waning moon and a north wind.

The labels of the domaine have a white spot that will turn grey if the ink in them is subjected to extreme temperatures, thus indicating that the wine may be damaged.

[5] Although the domaine records indicate a wine made in Chambertin as early as 1969,[14] the current parcel is farmed under the 1982 Metayage Agreement with the Mercier family.