2012 Côte-Rôtie La Belle Hélène

Now fully settled into his massive new winery at the southern end of Ampuis, Stéphane Ogier can handle his growing portfolio of wines far more efficiently than he could in his old cellar. (That facility, which is next to his parents' home on the west side of the railroad tracks smack in the middle of Ampuis, is now mostly used for equipment storage, but given Ogier's appetite for new vineyards, I suspect it will soon come in handy for bottle storage as well.) The Belle Hélène and Lancement bottlings will not be made in 2014, so severely low were the yields and strict selections in the vineyards and at the sorting table.

I tasted this year's set of wines in Ogier's spacious new cellar at the southern end of Ampuis, just across the road from the massive Vidal-Fleury winery and with a fantastic view of the Côte Blonde--and, especially, Ogier's beloved Lancement vineyard. Production here has exploded in recent years as Stéphane has been on a vineyard acquisition tear of late, picking up land in Côte-Rôtie and Condrieu, as well as in the southern Rhône. He admits that he's taking on a lot of work but said that "great vineyards don't come up for sale very often and if you don't jump on them you might regret it forever." The new cellar, which looks to be at least five times the size of his old digs in Ampuis, will allow him to be far more efficient in processing fruit and staging rackings and bottling, he told me, which means that making all that additional wine will be far less burdensome than things are right now, with smaller production. Ogier has introduced an entry-level Côte-Rôtie, by the way, and he told me that this will allow him to make an even more strict selection for his upper-tier bottlings as well as be able to offer a lower-priced wine that will provide for early drinking.

Stephane Ogiercompared the 2012 vintage for Cote-Rotie to 2010 in terms of power."But 2010 absolutely has a lot more tannic structure and needs patience, while the '12s will open up sooner," he told me.He believes that at the top end 2012 can be as good as 2010 "but overall that's not the case.With 2010 you were able to make excellent wines everywhere, even from young vines and less great terroirs." While Ogier likes 2011, he readily admits that he thinks that the wines will be best on the young side, explaining that they are "a lot like the 2006s but less ripe, with more herbal character and firmness but maybe better balance."The biggest challenge he faced in 2011, he added, was that yields were naturally high "and if you didn't control that you'd get green character."Ogier opened bottles of his mind-altering 2010 La Belle Helene and Lancement at the end of our session and I was especially struck by how much finesse both wines were showing, the Belle Helene in particular. There's no question that these are both wines to age and I doubt that even a long decanting would do either wine justice at this stage. The Lancement, which I scored 97 points last year, is simply a remarkable wine and one that I'd happily swap one-for-one for my 12-year-old daughter, if anyone was fool enough to offer me the chance.