Domaine Y. Clerget, Pommard Premier Cru, Les Rugiens 2021 - 300cl
Les Rugiens sits high on Pommard's slope, on the red clay that gives the village its name and its backbone. This is Pommard at its most serious, and Domaine Y. Clerget farms forty-year-old vines here, hand-harvesting and fully destemming before a cold soak and a gentle fifteen-to-twenty-day fermentation, then twelve months in barrel with a quarter new oak. Thibaud Clerget, who took the family estate back into its own hands in 2015, keeps the extraction measured, so the fruit reads clearly. The 2021 vintage was a cool, testing year, and it has drawn out the wine's mineral spine rather than its flesh.
Expect a nose that layers red fruit over darker berry, with a high, almost stony note of minerality sitting above it. The palate is powerful and full of energy, structured through the middle with the firm tannic grip that marks Pommard out from its softer Volnay neighbours. Candied red fruit, iron and crushed rock carry a long, savoury finish. A double magnum of a wine this structured is an unusual thing, and it makes a case for keeping: cellar it a decade and it will still be gathering complexity when you finally draw the cork.
How to Serve
Serve at 16 to 18C in large Burgundy bowls. Decant an hour ahead; a young Rugiens in this format needs air to loosen its tannic frame.
Where to Drink It
Wiltons on Jermyn Street, where the game and the ceremony suit its structure.
Brat in Shoreditch, for whole fish and cuts over live fire.
Bentley's on Swallow Street, if you want the grill and a serious cellar.
Food Pairings
Roast venison haunch with a juniper crust, meeting the tannins head-on.
