2015 Vosne-Romanée, Aux Damaudes, Bertrand Ambroise, Burgundy

Bertrand Ambroise

Though the Domaine Bertrand Ambroise has 18^th century antecedents it is very much the current incumbent, Bertrand Ambroise, in charge since 1987, who has driven the business forwards. The domaine, which is under conversion to organic farming, now covers 17 hectares and is complemented by a thriving negociant business. The style of wine is for dark coloured, powerful wines from fully ripe grapes, complemented by plenty of new oak. The reds are centred on Nuits St Georges but there is also Clos de Vougeot and Corton, while the whites range from St Aubin to Corton-Charlemagne.

Bertrand Ambroise's are not wines for the faint-hearted. The reds are neither fined nor filtered and are matured in barriques of which 75-100% are new. They are opaque in colour and on the palate are full-bodied and intense with copious amounts of chewy black fruits. His Corton Charlemagne is enormously concentrated but needs time to show at its best.

Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director and author of the award-winning Inside Burgundy comprehensive handbook.

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.

Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.

Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.

The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.