1996 Corton Charlemagne

The 1996 vintage was particularly successful in Corton-Charlemagne (see Issue #115 for more information on terroirs that did particularly well), Ambroise has fashioned a stunning wine. Aged in 100% new oak, this offering reveals mouth-watering tropical fruits, spices, and anise aromas. On the palate, this full-bodied, hyper-rich, massive, powerful, and intense wine is jam-packed with layers of roasted peaches, minerals, red berries, honeysuckle blossoms, toast, and anise. This profound, broad, concentrated, focused, and amazingly persistent wine is simply extraordinary. The score, noted on a range and in parentheses, indicates that the wine was tasted from barrel. The ever-smiling Bertrand Ambroise is one of the rare winemakers who produces high quality white and red Burgundies. Gregarious, intelligent, and always armed with a new joke or witty remark, Ambroise gets serious when talk turns to winemaking. In 1996 he crafted his whites 100% in barrel, with twice weekly batonnages until the malo-lactic fermentations began. He stopped stirring the lees at this stage "because the lees did not taste good." Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 832-9083.