Bertrand Ambroise Les Vaucrains, Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru, France

伯特蘭安布魯瓦茲沃克斯園（夜圣喬治一級(jí)園）干紅葡萄酒

點(diǎn)擊次數(shù)：4415

The 2011 Nuits St Georges 1er Cru Les Vaucrains offers the best bouquet of Ambroise’s raft of Nuits premier crus with lovely scents of macerated red cherries, pomegranate, undergrowth and fresh strawberry that is well-defined. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, crisp wild strawberry and raspberry notes that build to a pleasant, slightly sinewy finish that lingers in the mouth. This would be my pick from this producer in 2011. Drink now-2022. I have regularly tasted the wines from Maison Ambroise since I commenced the raft of Burgundy tastings in London. Bertrand Ambroise took over the running of the ancient Primeaux-Prissey- based negociant in 1987, and whenever I have met him, he seems to be a conscientious vigneron that cares deeply for his wine. The tenets here are all admirable: organic viticulture, handpicked fruit, rigorous sorting, minimal use of sulphur and so forth. But – and it is a big “but” – I have consistently found the wines to be smothered in superfluous new oak and at a time when many growers are generally reconsidering, and in many cases retreating from, its usage. Tasting through their 2011s seemed to say more about the cooperage than the individuality of the terroirs. Here, 100% new oak is used for both the premier and grand cru wines and it rendered them uniform and even a little passe. There is clearly high quality fruit here and there is also a keen focus upon creating the best wines possible. However, I have always felt that if Ambroise could dial down that new oak (not eradicate it completely) to a level commensurate with the fruit concentration in each cuvee, they would reveal far more personality. Still, there are some good wines to be found such as the Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Vaucrains and a respectable Corton-Rognets. Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083

Blackberry and huckleberry inform the darkly-, densely-, bittersweetly-concentrated Ambroise 2008 Nuits St.-Georges Clos Les Vaucrains, whose massive though relatively fine-grained tannins are underlain by suggestions of pencil lead and crushed stone that advance a rather austere overall impression. Certainly the sheer intensity of raw material here as resisted its (100%) new wood, although Ambroise doesn’t deny that the oak reinforces the impression of tannin. A strongly saline streak stimulates a welcome burst of salivation in a finish – tinged by iodine and medicinal, herbal bitterness – that is practically intimidating in its density, grip, and gum-numbing. Perhaps some of the inscrutable compactness here will dissipate in the course of bottling – I last tasted this from barrel – but I doubt it. I’d want to reassess it after a few years in bottle but suspect it will be best drunk at between 8 and 12 years of age and that 15 or more years from now it may appear too tough for its own good. Bertrand Ambroise picked late and captured impressively ripe material in 2008, though the strident side of the vintage is sometimes still in evidence in the resultant wines, and not always comfortably married with the ambitious extraction and high quotient of new wood that characterize his regimen. (For further details concerning Ambroise’s methods, consult my report in issue 171.) I did not, regrettably, have chance to taste any of Ambroise’s 2007s, which he characterizes, predictably, as having been much more open early-on than his 2008s and as for the most part being ideal to drink young. Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083

Blackberry and huckleberry inform the darkly-, densely-, bittersweetly-concentrated Ambroise 2008 Nuits St.-Georges Clos Les Vaucrains, whose massive though relatively fine-grained tannins are underlain by suggestions of pencil lead and crushed stone that advance a rather austere overall impression. Certainly the sheer intensity of raw material here as resisted its (100%) new wood, although Ambroise doesn’t deny that the oak reinforces the impression of tannin. A strongly saline streak stimulates a welcome burst of salivation in a finish – tinged by iodine and medicinal, herbal bitterness – that is practically intimidating in its density, grip, and gum-numbing. Perhaps some of the inscrutable compactness here will dissipate in the course of bottling – I last tasted this from barrel – but I doubt it. I’d want to reassess it after a few years in bottle but suspect it will be best drunk at between 8 and 12 years of age and that 15 or more years from now it may appear too tough for its own good. Bertrand Ambroise picked late and captured impressively ripe material in 2008, though the strident side of the vintage is sometimes still in evidence in the resultant wines, and not always comfortably married with the ambitious extraction and high quotient of new wood that characterize his regimen. (For further details concerning Ambroise’s methods, consult my report in issue 171.) I did not, regrettably, have chance to taste any of Ambroise’s 2007s, which he characterizes, predictably, as having been much more open early-on than his 2008s and as for the most part being ideal to drink young.Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083

Already on the nose of Ambroise's 2006 Nuits St.-Georges Clos Les Vaucrains, one senses that it is less about sweetness of fruit – although black raspberry and cassis have a distillate-like presence – than it is about smoky carnal and mineral elements, accompanied by pungent herbal notes. The meatiness and stoniness of flavors here – when taken together with the wine's viscosity, underlying density, impression of sinewy, slightly chewy tannic structure, and peppery finishing pungency – puts me in mind as much of Hermitage as of Burgundian Pinot. Suggestions of roasted nuts and coffee add further dark, faintly bitter shadings to this formidable, compactly-layered, brooding wine (remarkably similar to its 2005 counterpart) but at the same time an enhanced sense of ripe black fruits informs its long, tactilely gripping finish. Some tasters may find this too overbearing to harbor hope of its achieving elegance, but it is quite an achievement as is, and one I suspect will gain in complexity over the next several years and be worth following for a decade. It came as no surprise that Bertrand Ambroise would strive for ripe, concentrated, structured Pinots even in 2006, but I was amazed at the degree to which he succeeded with an approach that by his own admission was little different from that he had taken with his 2005s. Ambroise played-down a hypothesis I had begun to develop that Nuits-St.-Georges was especially favored in 2006, and added that he experienced less variability in ripeness from one Cotes de Nuits vineyard to another than was to be the case in 2007. Triage in 2006, reports Ambroise, was minimal, and performed primarily on cull under-ripe, not rot-afflicted bunches and berries. He left the young wines on their lees as long as he felt able, in order to retain a sense of freshness and vivacity, he said, as much as to enhance what was already manifestly going to be an unusual amount of body and palpable density for the vintage. (For further details concerning Ambroise's general methodology, readers are referred to my report in issue 171. As in other instances, I have not noted distinguished in their formal descriptions between estate wines and those Ambroise farms on contract.) Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083

Pitch-dark , the 2005 Nuits-St.-Georges Les Vaucrains displays aromas of ripe black fruits, toasted nuts, machine oil, and wet stones. Soy, bitter dark chocolate, roasted portabello and resin on the palate add to the impression of complexity, concentration and darkness conveyed by this very serious wine. The intensity of the finish wrung me out. But fun to drink? Perhaps in another ten years. 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