An Ambroise 2008 Vosne-Romanee – from high-up and adjacent to Nuits St.-Georges Les Damodes – smells of cassis and blackberry mingled with resin, star anise, and black pepper, which go on to inform an impressively-concentrated and pungent if rather stiff palate. An almost anchovy-like alliance of salinity, alkalinity, and well-hung meatiness lends saliva inducement and invigoration, but what this brings to its finish by way of fresh berry juiciness is slightly raw and acrid, an instance of what I have termed “the memory of malic acid.” I last tasted this from tank, and gave it chance to show itself after hand-degassing, as well as progressively warmer contexts, but I have my doubts about the evolution of what is to be sure a concentrated and penetratingly long Pinot. Bertrand Ambroise picked late and captured impressively ripe material in 2008, though the strident side of the vintage is sometimes still in evidence in the resultant wines, and not always comfortably married with the ambitious extraction and high quotient of new wood that characterize his regimen. (For further details concerning Ambroise’s methods, consult my report in issue 171.) I did not, regrettably, have chance to taste any of Ambroise’s 2007s, which he characterizes, predictably, as having been much more open early-on than his 2008s and as for the most part being ideal to drink young.Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083
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