Burgundy Wine Tasting Sessions at Ponti Wine Cellars

Burgundian wines at Ponti; twice this month at that. A good friend of mine recently started pursuing a wine course and all of a sudden decided to taste some wines from Burgundy to enrich her studies. Ponti Wine Cellars was having burgundy wine tasting sessions for the month of December and that’s the place which drew her attention to improve on her tasting skills.

I assured her that this particular wine course she’s pursuing does not have a ‘wine tasting component’ as part of the assessment (its purely multiple choice questions to attempt). Nevertheless she insisted, making me half suspect that the desire to sip Burgundy wines had something to do with more than fulfilling educational curiosity. Luckily places were still available for 2 burgundy tasting sessions and we signed up for both.

The first tasting was on 1 Dec. The rain that day was kind enough to take a brief respite by late afternoon and allowed for a dry journey to Ponti’s retail outlet at 204 Telok Ayer Street. There were around 10 folks that evening keen on the tasting session as well. The wines were from Domaine Jean Chartron. We tasted 5 wine (4 whites and 1 red):
2008 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Vieilles Vignes,
2008 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Folatieres,
2008 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos du Cailleret,
2008 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos du Cailleret Rouge and
2008 Rully Montmorin.

The second tasting session was on 8 Dec. This time it was an evening for red burgundian fare from Domaine Mongeard-Mugneret:
2004 Echezeauz Grand Cru,
2004 Vosne Romanee Village,
2005 Nuits-Saint Georges Les Plateaux Village and
2007 Beaune 1er Cru Les Avaux.

Ms Angelina Foo (from Ponti’s) conducted both sessions in a casual, informal yet informative manner; providing information about the domaines, addressing queries from curious enthusiasts and sharing her opinion on how these wines spoke to her. I must say her friendly demeanour made wine enthusiasts feel at ease and mid-way through these sessions there was comfortable mingling among the evening’s guests.

 

Both sessions showed wines which would do well with a little more aging. If I am to pick 2 wines from the first session for personal indulgence, they would be the 2008 Rully Monmorin (for youthful flavours and vibrancy on the palate) and the 2008 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Folatieres (for displaying good depth and structure in the body).

My choices from the second session would be the 2004 Echezeauz Grand Cru (for the varied subtle aromas displayed on the nose) and the 2007 Beaune 1er Cru Les Avaux (for the texture and flavours seen on the palate).

Visit the shop if you are around the corner; it has a decent range of French and Italian wines, not forgetting Austrian dessert wines too :p

For more pictures on these tastings visit: www.facebook.com/spiceinwine