Producer note: As was reported in these pages two years ago, Laurent Ponsot (see immediately below) has departed the domaine to pursue his own activities. Because he remains the sharecropper for the Mercier family's holdings, which includes the parcels in Griotte, Chambertin, Clos St. Denis and the Chambolle 1er "Les Charmes", those wines no long appear under the Domaine Ponsot label. The other wines that were produced by the domaine though continue as before though now under the direction of Laurent's sister Rose-Marie Ponsot and winemaker Alexandre Abel. I was received on this trip by them and they told me that "essentially little has changed since Laurent left as we were happy with the results we obtained and thus there is no particular need to change. One minor difference is that we are pressing the whites with whole clusters. As to the 2017 vintage, the growing season was relatively easy save for a hail storm that hit the northern part of Morey St. Denis that probably cost us around 20% of the potential harvest. We began picking a few of the chardonnay vineyards on the 8th of September but didn't begin with our pinot vines until the 18th where we continued through to the 28th. Yields were reasonable as most of our vines were spared the frost damage many others suffered in 2016. We did our usual vinification with a cuvaison of around 15 days and of course we are still using no new wood during the élevage. For us, 2017 gave us very good quality in style that should permit drinking earlier than normal but there is no reason that the wines shouldn't age for several decades as well." As the scores and commentaries confirm, I was impressed by what I found here and importantly for long-time fans of the Ponsot wines, I can confirm that there have been no evident stylistic changes. One other point bears mentioning with respect to the domaine's 2016s is that while Laurent Ponsot vinified them, the élevage after February 2017 was undertaken by Mme. Ponsot and M. Abel. (Vineyard Brands, www.vineyardbrands.com, Birmingham, AL and Atherton Wine Imports, www.awiwine.com, CA both USA; Goedhuis & Co., www.goedhuis.com, Ballantynes of Cowbridge, www.ballantynes.co.uk, The Rare & Fine Wine Company Limited, www.therareandfinewinecompany.com, and Lay & Wheeler, www.laywheeler.com, all UK).