Robert Parker
Sandalwood, machine oil, blackberry and cassis rise from the glass of 2005 Corton Rognets. In the mouth, this exhibits admirable purity and clarity of raw black fruits, low-toned charred meat, chalk, salt and wet stone minerality. Formidably yet finely tannic, this darkly-shaded and multi-layered wine really mines the mineral profundity of Corton and epitomizes the raw fruit intensity of which the vintage is capable. The stout of heart should lock this away for a decade or more. Amboise characterized this year’s fruit as consisting of “perfect berries, solid and well-structured” from which he concluded it should all be de-stemmed and a cautious approach taken to extraction. But caution is relative. Bertrand Ambroise certainly vinifies with a fanatic dedication to quality, but also with no concessions to the faint of heart, and his formidably tannic 2005s will strike some tasters as hyper-concentrated and flirting with over-extraction. Perhaps a bit more refinement and differentiation might have been achieved with a less robust and woody approach? Ambroise works largely with 400-liter barrels in an effort to preserve fruit by diminishing the surface-to-volume ratio and thus the flavoring effects of new wood, but I cannot claim that I would have recognized that fact in the wines themselves.
Bertrand Ambroise ligger i Bourgogne regionen i byen Prémeaux-Prissey. Husets historie har været i familien Ambroise i fem generationer, og der har været produceret vin siden 1940’erne. I 1977 overtog Bertrand og Martine, og i dag får de hjælp af deres børn Ludivine og Francois. Bertrand Ambroise har udover hans arbejde som vinproducent, desuden været borgmester i samme by, hvor vinhuset ligger. Selvom huset ikke er økologisk certificeret, har familien en naturlig indgang til vinproduktionen. De mener, at al god vin, starter i marken, og med respekt for naturen. Vinhuset har i dag 20 hektar vinmarker, og der arbejdes efter så mange naturlige principper som muligt i marken, f.eks. bruges der ikke kunstig gødning. Vinene fra Ambroise er kraftfulde i stilen, med masser af farve, frugt, fylde og ny eg.