Monopole Burgundy Value

While preparing dinner for some friends recently, and contemplating what to pair with our delicious pork roast, I decided the perfect paring would be Domaine Comte Armand’s 2007 Clos des Epeneaux.

Domaine Comte Armand has been under the ownership of the same family since 1828, which is very rare in Burgundy.  The Domaine owns only one vineyard, their famous Monopole Clos des Epeneaux.  As a monopole, Domaine Comte Armand is the sole owner and producer of wine from this vineyard, consistently producing one of Pommard’s stand out wines. 

Since his appointment in 1999 Benjamin Leroux, at the time a 23 year-old winemaking prodigy, has risen to be one of the world’s best winemakers.  Benjamin consistently produces one of the premier wines from the Cote de Beaune, it is also a tremendous value at its price point.  These wines usually require a minimum of 10 years of age to really show its potential and quality, and can age for 40+ years in exceptional vintages.  

As always with Burgs I like to decant for a couple hours before serving.  I also like to drink a small glass immediately after I pull the cork just so I can calibrate and see how it evolves.  In my glass was a lovely nose of stewed red fruit, earth tones, and cut flowers.  On the palate it was light-medium bodied and had a bit of a metallic finish.  After drinking several ‘07’s recently I knew it just needed some more time to open.  I went back to it after about 3 hours and it was already changing.  The fruit had intensified & the wine was lusher and had a much more balanced finish.  I still knew that it had more to offer, so after another 3 hours I tasted it again, and the wine finally started to sing.  It filled out in the glass and paired perfectly with the pork roast.

We just checked in 6 cases of the ’07 vintage.  Back-vintage Burgs of this caliber are always hard to come by in quantity because production is so low (less than 500 cases produced).  I always make note to try wines likes these as soon as they arrive, not only for my wine knowledge, but also to add to my collection.

Needless to say I’m a big fan of this wine.  It offers tremendous value at this price-point (Under $90/bottle).  I’ve added some to my collection and I suggest you do the same before it’s gone.