Domaine Robert Ampeau - Volnay-Santenots Premier Cru 2002
Price: $124.00
| Producer | Domaine Robert Ampeau |
| Country | France |
| Region | Burgundy |
| Subregion | Volnay-Santenots Premier Cru |
| Varietal | Pinot Noir |
| Vintage | 2002 |
| Sku | 010969 |
| ABV | 13.00% |
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When I first started selling the wines from Domaine Robert Ampeau, it was a very different time in the wine business: grower champagne was a niche product, rosé was unsellable and most retailers couldn’t get enough of inky-black Parker-scored wines. But then, as now, the classics remain, like the market for mature, perfectly stored red and white Burgundy; a specialty of Robert and Michel Ampeau. The true magic of Ampeau is not only the extraordinary quality of their wines when young, but that the family takes on the extra cost of storing the wines and releasing them late, mature and drinking beautifully.
The wines of Domaine Ampeau are the perfect introduction for Corkscrew customers into the fascinating journey that wine makes on its evolution to maturity. Furthermore, they are the quintessence of perfect provenance in shipping and storing wine: without the proper care in the cellar and along the supply chain, these delicate treasures lose their subtlety, nuance and complexity.
By the time the doors of the Corkscrew opened in 1996, Michel Ampeau had already been running the domaine for his father Robert for a good 10 years. He changed virtually nothing in the vineyards and the cellar, keeping the traditional ways of his family, including aging over half a million bottles in their cold, dark cellars in Meursault.
Sadly, Michel had a stroke in 2014, losing his ability to work in the vines and the cellar. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to offer any wine from the Ampeaus. Fortunately for Michel, many hours of physical therapy have paid off for his quality of life, and, luckily for our customers, have allowed him to hand label some of the bottles from his cellar…
The 2002 vintage: a year with perhaps the most class, intensity, and fabulous longevity of the last 25 years. Michel’s top cru of red wine, Volnay-Santenots, is an aristocratic wine, just starting to hit its stride. This parcel is comprised of old vines — nearing 60 years of age — and is rooted in a mix of iron-rich clay and hard limestone facing southeast. The 2002 Volnay-Santenots opens with a brooding nose of dark fruit mingled with black tea and forest floor but in short order, it evolves and opens, becoming impossibly younger, fresh, and vibrant with high-toned aromas of violets, red berries and anise. The mid-palate is layered and intensely fruity with an energy that belies its age. This tension, a hallmark of Santenots and the 2002 vintage follows through a long, mineral finish. Like all great wines, the last glass you have of Michel Ampeau’s Volnay-Santenots 2002 will be the best one. Remarkably, this gorgeous Volnay still has the bones to age for a good deal longer!
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