Maison Bertrand Ambroise Corton Le Rognet Grand Cru, Cote de Beaune, France

貝特朗·安布羅斯（科爾登特級園）紅葡萄酒

點擊次數(shù)：1070

The 2011 Corton Le Rognet Grand Cru has a slightly lactic bouquet with dark chocolate infusing the macerated red cherries with a hint of violet and rose petal developing with time, as it gains more delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with a brisk opening. The tannins are a little angular and not quite wedded to the fruit, although there is plenty of freshness on the finish that leaves a touch of cracked black pepper and undergrowth on the aftertaste. Fine. Drink now-2018. 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

Smoky-sweet machine oil, cooked beet root, and dark berries scent Ambroise’s 2008 Corton Le Rognet, then inform an intensely-concentrated, palate staining reduction of flavors, with mace, charred wood, and chalk lending a formidably tactile dimension but also a sense that its author is flirting with hyper-concentration. Huckleberry (as in the corresponding Vaucrains) and juniper add bitter intensity to the relentless, rather austere intensity, and were it not for a late burst of saliva-inducing salinity I think I might have been loathe to take the second sip. This is another wine of its collection to revisit a few years on, and since I last tasted it from barrel perhaps its last weeks there and its bottling might temper some of its severity, although I am skeptical. I suspect that this will remain healthy even if in a rather rude way for 12-15 years. 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

Harvested – as usual – around a week ahead of his other sites (but at 13.8% natural alcohol), Ambroise's 2006 Corton Le Rognet inhabits a very different world from his other wines of this vintage. Lightly-cooked but tart-edged red raspberry, dark chocolate, crushed stone, and savory salinity combine for an expression of palpable density and impressive richness allied to vivacity and invigoration, and with floral and spirituous red and black fruit overtones. This lean, big-boned, yet fleet-of-foot athlete is likely to be a 10-12 year distance runner, and I suspect it will reveal further fascination in 2-3. 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

Sandalwood, machine oil, blackberry and cassis rise from the glass of 2005 Corton Rognets. In the mouth, this exhibits admirable purity and clarity of raw black fruits, low-toned charred meat, chalk, salt and wet stone minerality. Formidably yet finely tannic, this darkly-shaded and multi-layered wine really mines the mineral profundity of Corton and epitomizes the raw fruit intensity of which the vintage is capable. The stout of heart should lock this away for a decade or more. 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

As always, Ambroise’s parcel of Corton le Rognet (red) was the first fruit picked in 2003 (on August 25th). Mocha, blackberries, cassis, and hints of leather can be found in its aromatics. Though served at the same temperature as all the others (deep in the cellars), this wine came across as substantially cooler. Its structured character, packed with tannin, displays cassis, black as well as red cherries, herbs, chocolate, and minerals. A powerful effort, it will require patience (as Ambroise’s Corton’s typically do). Drink it between 2010 and 2018. Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083