2010 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Château d'Ampuis
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Tasting notes
The Chateau d'Ampuis is a blend of the seven different lieux-dits comprising this cuvée and is co-fermented with roughly 10% Viognier and raised four years in new barrels. It's made exactly like the famous Lalas here, and while it might have the same singular character of the three (now four) single vineyards, it's clearly in the same qualitative ballpark, and blind tasting after blind tasting has confirmed this for me. Looking at the 2010, it has shed most of its baby fat and is now showing a classic, elegant, yet still concentrated style and, as all of the top cuvées from Guigal tend to do, has absorbed every bit of its oak upbringing. Gorgeous red and black fruits, smoked meats, minty herbs, graphite, and spring flower notes all shine in the bouquet, and it's medium to full-bodied on the palate, with a layered, elegant mouthfeel, silky tannins, flawless balance, and a great finish. This complex, nuanced, incredibly seductive Côte Rôtie can be drunk any time over the coming 15-20 years. This is one of the all-time greats of this cuvée, and I wish I'd have bought more on release.
Critic scores
Jeb Dunnuck
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
The 2010 Côte-Rôtie Château d’Ampuis is very high-toned on the nose with a little more VA than I would like, aniseed and liquorice infusing the mixture of blue and black fruit. Yet the palate shows much better balance and composure, finely-knit tannins, broad-shouldered with black truffle and kirsch on the dense and impactful finish. Again, this obviously requires more time in the cellar, but there is a lot of potential as long as the aromatics can muster more composure. I speculate that there is bottle variation here?
Glass-staining ruby. Potent raspberry, floral pastille and Asian spice scents are complicated by suggestions of mocha, licorice and pipe tobacco. Silky and expansive on the palate, offering sweet red fruit liqueur and cherry-vanilla flavors lifted and sharpened by juicy acidity. Finishes broad, seamless and extremely long, with slow-building tannins adding shape and grip. This expressive wine drinks very well now but has the concentration and structure to age.