I had high expectations for the 2023 Pommard 1er Cru Les Rugiens Hauts, but the wine nevertheless took my breath away. Unwinding in the glass with a deep and youthfully brooding bouquet of Damask rose, violets, exotic spices and wild berries, it's full-bodied, ample and utterly suave, with a deep and seamless core of fruit, sweet tannins and striking purity and perfume. This cuvée derives from the upper part of Les Rugiens, where the soils are whiter and shallower than the rich red clays that characterize the lower part of this premier cru, delivering a much more ethereal style of wine (think Reignots versus Richebourg) than the muscularity of Rugiens du Bas.William Kelley.
