2015 Domaine Launay-Horiot Pommard 1er Cru Les Choponnieres

A Fighter Pilot’s Battle for His Family’s History

Xavier Horiot served as a fighter pilot for the French air force, so it should come as no surprise that he was willing to battle with everything he had to maintain control of his family’s historic estate in Pommard. He probably didn’t expect to have to do so, but when the time came, Xavier was more than willing to risk it all.

The man fought for over ten years, through the byzantine French legal system and the horrors of Napoleonic inheritance laws, to keep his aunt from selling her interest in the property to the vineyard conglomerates buying up the best parcels in Burgundy, and to keep his grandfather’s legacy as a paragon within the Pommard community alive. Lawyers fees be damned, he emerged victorious.

For Burgundy lovers everywhere, this was a gift. His 2015 Les Chaponnières bursts with a bouquet of red and black fruit, dark chocolate, and forest floor in an intoxicating combination only Pommards of the first order can deliver.

 The vines are treated with care and respect, and always with an eye toward the overall health of the land; the grapes are harvested by hand into boxes of less than 25 pounds; and the fruit is macerated for around a week before fermentation begins, in order to extract all of the character from their incredible terroir. Even with our close connections, we could only wrestle a few bottles of this crimson stunner for Wine Access insiders.

Xavier’s first commercial vintage was an instant superstar. The NoMad LA promptly added it to its list—no small feat, given the notoriously high bar the sommeliers set there. Bourbon Steak in Miami poured it, too.

No wonder. The premier cru of Les Chaponnières is among the most desirable in all of Pommard, lying as it does just adjacent to the village itself and blessed with gently sloping east- and southeast-facing vineyards. The result was a wine Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate praised for its “sweet bouquet of red and black fruit, dark chocolate and a smoky framing of new oak,” and which Burghound lauded for its “full-bodied and muscular flavors.” We were swept away by Launay Horiot’s classic structure, textbook elegance, and harmony of black plum and cherry flavors, underscored by crushed herbs.

All of that work, in the few short years that Domaine Launay Horiot has been in existence, has led to this bottling, a wine of character, soul, and history. Balanced fresh fruit and savory herbal notes on the nose complicate mulberry, Rainier cherry, forest floor, sumac, and violets, and then seamlessly transition to mouth-coating tannins. It makes sense, of course, given the centuries-long story behind this less than decade-old incarnation.

The fighter pilot in Xavier was right all along: His family’s domaine was worth the fight. And the winner in this particular battle wasn’t only him and his family; it’s all of us, who get to taste the remarkable story of determination and family pride with every sip.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 13.50%
• 30 mins
• Now – 2030
• % Pinot Noir
• Serving temperature – 60°
• Cork