Prefer the old site?Launch →

Domaine Bertrand Ambroise

"Nineteen ninety-nine is the departure point for our new style," Ambroise told me in November. In his spacious new vinification facility down the street from his house in Premeaux-Prissey, Ambroise uses a vibrating table to shake the water off the grapes, then moves the fruit to a second triage table to eliminate any rotten or underripe fruit. When he vinified in cramped quarters at his house Ambroise was forced to work quickly and "everything was done to excess," including cold maceration with SO2 and the frequency of pigeage Now he can vinify at his leisure, and as a result he is seeking less energetic extraction. Ambroise did only a three-day cold soak prior to fermentation in '99, and then punched down the cap just once a day. He is now able to work mostly by gravity, instead of pumping the wine, which is especially hard on pinot noir. Ambroise describes 1999 as his best vintage since 1990, thanks to "a great balance of sugars, acids and tannins." A bit of hydric stress allowed the grapes to retain good acidity (pHs are actually lower than those of the previous year, he told me) but grape sugars were still on the high side (as high as 14.5% in his Corton Rognets). Yields were in the 46 hectoliters-per-hectare range for his Nuits-Saint-Georges premier crus. Ambroise noted that his '99s tended to finish their fermentations with nearly two grams per liter of sugar, while the '98s were dryer. He compares the '98 tannins to those of '91, and feels they will resolve quickly. "Give the '98s two or three years before starting to drink them," he says. (Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, D.C.)

From 1999 and 1998 Red Burgundies (Mar 2001) by Stephen Tanzer

Reviews

Wines

Sort by default

1998 Corton Le Rognet

Color: Red

Subscriber Access Only

Domaine Bertrand Ambroise

1998 Corton Le Rognet

1998 Vosne-Romanee

1998 Nuits-Saint-Georges Vieilles Vignes

1999 Vosne-Romanee

1999 Beaune

1999 Clos Vougeot

1999 Vougeot Les Cras

1999 Nuits-Saint-Georges Vieilles Vignes

1999 Nuits-Saint-Georges Clos Des Argillieres

1999 Cote de Nuits-Villages

1999 Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Vaucrains

1998 Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Vaucrains

1999 Corton Le Rognet

1999 Nuits-Saint-Georges Rue de Chaux

1999 Nuits-Saint-Georges

Content

Engage

Vinous

Social