Discussing the Challenges of the Wine Industry

Today, we visited the last of the Grand Cru wineries on our itinerary, Domaine Ponsot. And who should escort us, but the managing director himself, Laurent Ponsot. Your first impression is that this guy can't be a serious winemaker. Long hair with a pony tail.

But he is very serious, and a smart, savvy businessman who also enjoys life. He has driven a Harley-Davidson across the U.S. with his wife on the back seat - TWICE. He drives a white Corvette around the roads of Burgundy. He used to be a mountain climber, but after suffering injuries in an auto accident years ago, he became a private pilot.

Laurent Ponsot tries to manage his vineyards the old fashioned way - his rows of vines are oriented horizontally on the hillsides, not vertically like most vineyards. It makes it much more difficult to tend the vines, but minimizes erosion. He also utilizes many old, proven techniques in his winemaking, avoiding some of the new technologies.

He has very limited production and his wines are highly coveted by collectors. So much so, that he has been an activist on the topic of counterfeit wines being sold at auctions. He even flew to NY in May when he questioned the authenticity of an auction lot of his older wines. He discovered that only one bottle in the lot was authentic - the rest were fake. See this article from Wine Spectator about the incident.

Article on counterfeit wines










Laurent and his wife Claude joined us for dinner this evening. Laurent personally prepared the dessert - strawberries macerated in Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche wine. Scrumptuous.

See our wine blog for the menu and list of wines served at dinner this evening.