Domaine de Montille’s Pommard “Les Cras” 2023 is a village-level Pinot Noir that aims to show Pommard’s structure without tipping into heaviness. It is also a relatively singular wine in the estate’s range: it’s de Montille’s only red village wine from the Côte de Beaune. Fruit comes from a small 0.5-hectare holding in Les Cras, a stony, upper-slope climat in Pommard, planted in the early 1980s and positioned near top sites in the commune. In this vintage, the domaine used one-third whole clusters and is ageing the wine in cask with 10% new oak, choices that typically underline perfume and frame the fruit rather than dominate it.

Decanter’s Charles Curtis MW gives an excellent 93-point review and leads with the wine’s clarity of fruit: “Aromas of lovely pomegranate fruit dominate the initial attack.” He notes that while “the structure is tannic,” it is “not overly so,” and that the wine’s density “makes the tannins feel silky and approachable.” Curtis also adds useful site detail, placing the vines “from 0.5ha below Rugiens,” with “some iron in the fairly deep soil over a limestone base, south of the village,” a combination that often brings both firmness and an earthy-mineral edge.

Vinous reviewer Neal Martin rates it 92 (from a 90–92 band) and emphasizes elegance over muscle. He describes “a perfumed bouquet with rose petal scents” and a “medium-bodied” palate with “fine tannins” and “pretty red cherry fruit,” finishing on what he calls “a delicate and precise finish.” Martin sums it up as “a lovely and endearing Pommard without airs or graces,” which captures the general impression: a Pommard that keeps its tannic spine, but wears it with restraint.

Overall, the 2023 “Les Cras” reads as a polished, fragrant, classically built Pommard, with enough freshness and tactility to be welcoming earlier than many examples from the appellation.