2018 Domaine Jean-Marc Bouley Pommard, Cote de Beaune

Bouley showed me bottles—blind—of his 2018 Pommard Village, one (the cuvée that will be sold) bottled on a "flower day" according to the biodynamic calendar, the other (an experiment) bottled on a "root day." The differences were surprisingly flagrant, though both were showing well. Exhibiting aromas of red berries, spices, raw cocoa, orange rind and flowers, it's medium to full-bodied, chalky and incisive and once again reflects its origins in the cool and stony lieu-dit of Vaumuriens. While it's shut down out of the gates, this has terrific potential and numbers among the sleepers of the vintage.

91+ points William Kelley robertparker.com, Drink 2025-2045.

Walk through the vineyards of Pommard and Volnay, and Thomas Bouley's meticulously tended vines are easy to spot: with high, beautifully spaced canopies and aerated, living soils, they inspire admiration even among the most exacting. His opinions are trenchant, but no one could contend that he doesn't put them into practice. Yet Bouley remains, to a significant extent, a "winemakers winemaker"—someone sometimes more talked about by his neighbors than by collectors overseas who are more readily seduced by social media savoir faire than hard work in the vineyards. It's typical of the domaine's insider status that Thomas's own name doesn't actually appear on the label, and that his finest wine is neither his Pommard Rugiens, nor his Volnay Caillerets, but rather his Pommard Fremiers—a climat one seldom hears spoken of. That will surely change—and soon—but for now, these remain some of the Côte d'Or's finest values, a fact that readers should profit from to acquire some bottles while they can. As I wrote last year, the rudiments of Bouley's approach in the cuverie and cellar are simple: for his terroirs that are richer in clay, he retains significant proportions of stems, whereas stonier sites are largely or entirely destemmed. Macerations are comparatively long, with temperature control only when deemed necessary. In the cellar, the influence of new oak is minimal, and the wines see two winters on the fine lees. This year, we opted to revisit the 2018s in bottle, and they fulfilled all the promise they showed from barrel last year. I also tasted the domaine's 2019s—"in your capacity as an interested wine lover, but not to review," as Bouley put it—but respecting his preference that critics henceforth comment only on finished wines from his domaine, I will confine myself to saying that any readers who have the opportunity to purchase some before I'm able to publish reviews shouldn't hesitate to do so.