2003 Côte-Rôtie La Belle Hélène

Stephane Ogier is one of the few young rising stars of the Cote-Rotie appellation, having taken the family's wines to another level in recent vintages while starting a small negociant operation on the side. He purchases only grapes, not wine, and pays more for higher-quality fruit. Stephane told me he buys only on the north side of the village of Ampuis because he knows these terroirs better. "Besides, vineyards in the Cote-Blonde require lower yields than the growers are willing to produce," he added. Thanks in part to the success of his negoce wines, Stephane's parents have been able to retire from the fruit business. The Ogiers benefited considerably by being able to quickly chill down the 2003 fruit by leaving it in the cold room that was previously their fruit cellar. Ogier told me that his style of winemaking in 2003 was the opposite of that for the previous vintage. "In 2002 we had a cold summer and a long, slow ripening. So we tried to get maximum extraction of skin components, with no risk of overextraction," he explained. "In 2003, we chilled the grapes for 24 hours before crushing them the next morning. The grapes went into the tank at 4oC. We did a cold soak for a full week, and then we kept the fermentation temperature to 28o and did a very soft extraction to preserve freshness of fruit. "The Ogiers did only a single punchdown or pumpover per day. This address was one of the highlights of my tour of the Cote-Rotie appellation. (Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, D. C.)