2013 Cote Rotie Chateau d'Ampuis
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Tasting notes
The 2013 Côte Rôtie Chateau D'Ampuis showed consistent with last year, offering classic, masculine notes of smoked black fruits, crushed flowers, and lots of minerality. It’s not a blockbuster but has good concentration, bright acidity, and building tannin, all suggesting 3-4 years of bottle age will be your friend. Due to the timing of my visit (which was earlier than normal), I wasn’t able to taste a full lineup from Guigal. Nevertheless, even an abbreviated lineup from Guigal consists of more wines than just about every other producer I taste with. Looking at the 2016s, the white wines, especially from Condrieu, are brilliant and show the more fresh, vibrant style of this cooler, late vintage. The reds are very classic in style across the board. I’ll taste these again, mostly from barrel, next year as well, but this is certainly an excellent vintage. The 2015s, as I’ve written more than once now, are truly spectacular, and after tasting these wines multiple times from barrel now, I completely understand why Marcel Guigal would declare this the greatest vintage of his lifetime. These are rich, voluptuous, massive wines I think will represent a modern-day version of 1978. The 2014s continue to improve every time I taste them, which is common for this estate. Similar, perhaps, to a toned down 2012, these are charming, supple, elegant wines that are vastly more approachable than the 2013s. Lastly, the 2013s from bottle showed the backward, dark, mineral-laced profile of the vintage. They’re beautifully concentrated and terrific wines, yet the cellar is going to be your friend.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
The 2013 Cote Rotie Chateau d'Ampuis spent 38 months in oak. It features subtle notes of pie crust layered over espresso, black olives and dark fruit. Medium to full-bodied, it suffers only by comparison to other recent vintages, finishing with some drying tannins.
93% Syrah, 7% Viognier. Violet and sweet spice on the palate, tight tannin and refreshing acidity. The oak is very prominent, but it has the fruit to match, and is youthfully snappy and fragrant. Not especially broad in flavour range, but well defined. (RH)
Opaque ruby. Powerful smoke- and spice-accented aromas of ripe red and blue fruits, olive and violet are sharpened by a smoky mineral overtone. Deeply concentrated yet lively as well, showing impressive focus and lift to the black currant, boysenberry and floral pastille flavors, which show a smooth, velvety texture. Deftly marries power and finesse and finishes impressively long and sweet, displaying repeating dark berry character and dusty tannins that sneak in late.