1998 Côte-Rôtie La Belle Hélène

Stephane Ogier describes 2000 as "a very elegant vintage in a pinot way, a bit like the Cote de Nuits in style. It was critical to avoid overextraction." After the maturing process was blocked by a hot, very dry August, some well-timed rain at the beginning of September quickly sent potential alcohol levels from 10.5% to 12.5%. The domain had eliminated virtually half its fruit in early August, yet still produced a larger crop than in '99 and '98. The Ogiers began the practice of destemming their fruit in 1998; they removed a good 70% of the stems in 2000. Although the Ogiers now do a longer cuvaison to gain fat and material, they stop punching down the cap as soon as the fermentation ends, relying instead on chapeau immerge(submerged cap) and remontage(pumping over) to aerate the must. The domain has also reduced the number of rackings during elevage to a bare minimum, an approach that more and more Rhone Valley producers are taking with grenache as well as syrah, especially when the wines are aged in small, new barrels. "We waited a long time to rack our 2000s," notes Stephane, adding that half of the 2000 cuvees had been racked in June, and the other half not at all. The plan was to bottle the wines with just one or two rackings, compared to four for the larger-scaled 1999s. (Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, D.C.)

The Ogiers have bottled their Cote-Roties without filtration since '97, fining only the press wine. They describe '99 and '98 as offering similar levels of acidity, even if '98 had a healthier pH. Still, said Michel Ogier, the '99 has shown a tendency toward reduction in barrel, which he takes as a positive sign. The Ogiers started harvesting about ten days after the ban de vendange in '99, then took a full three weeks to pick. The result is a stunning set of wines, including the most promising example to date of their Cotes du Rhone La Rosine bottling (from 12-year-old syrah vines planted between Ampuis and Condrieu), which underwent a three-week cuvaison with 50% of its stems and shows unusually complex aromatic character and lovely density and vinosity. Michel son Stephane was getting set to leave the day after my visit for a two-week tour of California with his buddy Stephane Montez of Domaine du Monteillet. (Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, D.C.)

Ogier harvested late in '98, getting ripe grapes and ripe stems, according to Stephane Ogier (the fruit here is crushed but not destemmed). As the '98s had little tendency to become reduced, less racking was done. Beginning with the '97 vintage, Ogier has moved his wines into barrel earlier, in some instances finishing the malolactic fermentation in barriques. Ogier's new Belle-Helene bottling, from 50-year-old petit serine vines in Cote Roziers and Cote Brune, gets an extra year of barrel aging (in 100% new oak). The utterly seamless '98 will be among the best five or six wines of the appellation when it is released in 2001. (Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, D.C.)