2020 Jean-Marc Bouley Pommard, Burgundy

Wafting from the glass with notes of sweet cherries, strawberries, vine smoke, raw cocoa and spices, the 2020 Pommard Village is medium to full-bodied, cool and layered, with terrific depth at the core and a lively spine of acidity that carries through the long, saline finish. As usual, the blend is dominated by the cool, northeasterly exposures of the windy lieu-dit of Valmuriens.

Bottled after two years' élevage, Bouley's 2020s are some of the best wines he has produced to date, rivaling his 2019s and 2015s to rank as the highpoint, though surely not the ultimate zenith, of his already remarkable career. In Issue 256 End of August 2021 of The Wine Advocate, I devoted an article to this meticulous, perfectionist vigneron; so for more details on his methods and approach, I direct readers there (https://www.robertparker.com/articles/tPD7awaYz44xQDNrY). Why is 2020 such a success? Firstly, Bouley's agronomy clearly paid off, delivering fully mature fruit without any hint of over-ripeness. Secondly, among the ensemble of details that together make a great wine, an important factor is cooperage; and here, Bouley has made progress, finding a tonnelier capable of making barrels exactly adapted to his requirements. Thirdly, his policy of longer élevage, for all his appellations, was especially well adapted to the 2020 vintage, civilizing wines that, if bottled early, might have remained brutishly primary, but which, after the better part of 24 months' maturity, are suave, elegant and unfailingly precise.