The story about Laurent Ponsot leaving Domaine Ponsot seems rather never ending without adding much clarity at this point.
The latest article from Bourgogne Aujourd’hui have a bit of news regarding the vineyards but also it brings yet but is very unclear about what is happening in the short term regarding the wines offered in the 2015 and 2016 vintages.
Status according to Bourgogne Aujourd’Hui
The conclusions from the Bourgogne Aujourd’hui article.
Firstly Laurent Ponsot is still not mentioning any reasons for his departure from the family estate in Mid-February. So he has left the building so to speak.
Furthermore he made it clear that the Domain Ponsot is not for sale contrary to the rumors circulating. The estate will according to Laurent Ponsot continue its activities under the management of Rose-Marie Ponsot, one of Laurent Ponsot’s sisters.
Laurent Ponsot will start in Gilly-les-Cîteaux under his name – not as earlier articles and interviews suggested Saint-Nicolas les Cîteaux.
The firm is registered as according to the article “une activité de production et de négoce” which indicates that it’s a both production and negociant business, with his son Clément age 37. The new setup is without investors or other external parties.
The first bottles from the new house “Laurent Ponsot” will be released coming from the vintages 2015 and 2016, and these are from the negociant activities.
It is from the 2017 vintage that things really will begin according to the article. Laurent and Clément Ponsot will exploit 3 hectares of vineyards (Griotte-Chambertin, Chambertin, Clos-Saint-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny Les Charmes, Chambolle-Musigny village and Burgundy).
Other land owners/winegrowers will presumably join as partners supplying wine to the negociant business – 30,000 to 50,000 bottles will be produced in the 2017 vintage.
Some of the above is not fully consistent with other earlier articles and information from different sources, and it all seems very unclear currently.
The story seem to change a bit as we move forward – and for me it is not clear what wines Ponsot will be able to sell in the 2015 and 2016 vintages.
The vineyards mentioned are what they will exploit from the 2017 vintage – at least indicating that Laurent Ponsot will take over the vineyards Domaine Ponsot has in metayage from Domaine des Chezeaux + a few more.
I will explore further .. but publish no further updates before the situations and the explanations seem to stabilize in a somewhat more clear picture.