Parcels situated below Les St.-Georges and Caille inform Ambroise’s 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges Vieilles Vignes. With sweeter blackberry aromas and flavors, and a somewhat richer, gentler initial palate impression than most of the Ambroise 2005s, this offers complementary elements of black chocolate, coconut, and singed meat. Still amazingly dark and powerful, this Pinot packs a rolling block of a finish. More formidable than loveable today, it appears to need 5-7 years before even justifying re-inspection. (Then again, I am tempted to say “drink it before it drinks you!”)
Amboise characterized this year’s fruit as consisting of “perfect berries, solid and well-structured” from which he concluded it should all be de-stemmed and a cautious approach taken to extraction. But caution is relative. Bertrand Ambroise certainly vinifies with a fanatic dedication to quality, but also with no concessions to the faint of heart, and his formidably tannic 2005s will strike some tasters as hyper-concentrated and flirting with over-extraction. Perhaps a bit more refinement and differentiation might have been achieved with a less robust and woody approach? Ambroise works largely with 400-liter barrels in an effort to preserve fruit by diminishing the surface-to-volume ratio and thus the flavoring effects of new wood, but I cannot claim that I would have recognized that fact in the wines themselves.
Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083
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