The wine known simply as 2008 Aries – technically an appellation Bourgogne – was dreamt-up and assembled by Ambroise with his U.S. importer in order to offer what at least purports to be good value in village-level quality of red Burgundy, and was assembled from around 50% old vines Bourgogne (long bottled separately) along with from Cotes de Nuits-Villages, Morey, Pernand, and Pommard. Aromas and flavors of blackberry and mulberry here retain a nice sense of freshness, tart fruit skin edge, and cut that had been missing in the corresponding Bourgogne and Cotes de Nuits-Villages bottlings, and the 50% new wood here contributes well-integrated notes of coffee and resin to the wine’s depth of dark fruit. A strong streak of salinity activates the salivary glands and helps accommodate one’s palate to firm underlying tannins. Admirable though this is in terms of its palpable density and ripeness of fruit, it hasn’t an especially distinctive personality. I would plan on enjoying it over the next 4-6 years. 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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