2006 Clos Vougeot

Along with his Echezeaux Ambroise's harvested his 2006 Clos Vougeot last. "This is a site with special conditions," he remarks, "and I can't understand those who want to harvest it early. Even in 2003, I picked it latest." Notes of roasted game are prominent from the aroma on, with caramel-tinged, lightly-cooked ripe blackberry and cherry fruit rising on a viscous but firmly tannic palate. An underlying sense of stoniness carries into a finish that picks up surprising primary fruit juiciness and consequent sense of vivacity and refreshment, without which the darkly-hued flavors and palpable structure would render this Pinot austere. Even so, I suspect it is ultimately headed in a relatively somber direction, but should be fascinating to follow for at least 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