Domaine Jean Michel Gaunoux’s Pommard Les Perrières is the estate’s most consistently distinguished Premier Cru expression, produced from vines in this stony, mineral-driven site on the southern boundary of the Pommard appellation and vinified in the traditional, firmly structured style for which the domaine has built its reputation among Pommard specialists. The magnum format amplifies the essential character of the Gaunoux approach: wines of firm tannin, good concentration and long ageing potential that require patience but reward it handsomely, and whose development in the larger format over many years produces a complexity that the standard bottle can never quite replicate.

The 2011 Burgundy vintage is one of the most interesting and undervalued of the past two decades for red wines. Following two outstanding vintages in 2009 and 2010, the 2011 was widely dismissed at release as structurally dilute and commercially unrewarding. Subsequent tastings by specialists have consistently revised this initial assessment upward, finding that the finest 2011 reds from quality-focused domaines in the Côte de Beaune have developed a charm, finesse and approachable elegance that the more obviously powerful 2009 and 2010 do not always achieve in the same early timeframe. For a traditionally structured Pommard Premier Cru from Gaunoux in the magnum format, the 2011’s inherent elegance provides an interesting counterpoint to the more firmly tannic structure of the 2018 and 2019 vintages elsewhere in this catalogue.

Three vintages of Gaunoux Pommard Les Perrières magnum appearing in this batch (2011, 2013 and the 2018 and 2019 offered in Batch 10) provide a rare vertical opportunity across contrasting years, spanning the charming 2011 through the more structured later vintages. For collectors seeking mature and approachable Pommard Premier Cru in magnum format from a reliable traditional estate, the 2011 offers the most immediately accessible entry into the Gaunoux range currently available.

Garnet with mature brick highlights and a charming, evolved nose of red cherry, iron, dried rose, forest floor, leather and the mineral precision of Les Perrières on limestone. Medium-bodied with supple, well-resolved tannins, good residual acidity and a long, savoury, mineral finish. Drinking at its peak now; best through 2030.