1996 Vosne-Romanée Aux Damodes

Ambroise is among a relative handful of Cote d'Or growers who consider 1996 a great vintage. "Like 1990, but with better balance, better acidity," he says. As I reported last year, Ambroise has improved the balance of his wines in recent years by discontinuing his practice of saignee and instead cropping for lower yields and using a sorting table to eliminate inferior grapes. And extraction is less exaggerated today: with the '95 vintage, he reduced pigeage to just a single punching down of the cap per day. Ambroise carried out an extended cold maceration of 7-10 days in '96, but says that the tannins are elevated because of his relatively low yields. Still, he adds, the tannins are silkier than those of '95. These '96s were extremely primary and fresh in November, and a couple of them had not yet finished their secondary fermentations. (Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, D.C.)