WTN: Cote-Rotie and Corton

2001 Côte Rotie Chateau d’Ampuis Guigal:
Dark red color, this wine has an insane nose. It just smells like a great honey glazed roasted lump of meat. It also has a very earthy component to it. Also some sweeter things are coming through like dates but also a lot of herbs. Just a very broad, intense and complex bouquet. The taste was a bit less compared to the taste but still brought a lot of “thunder”. This is a very polished wine but it also has a very high acidity and it is earthy. You do feel this wine had oak but that it had 38months of new oak is something I would have never guessed. This wine is not fruit driven but is very polished and brings a lot of power while not being very full bodied. I still have one bottle left but I will wait a few years to open that one.

2005 Corton Grand Cru Bouchard pere et Fils:
A transparent (dark) red color. Just like with the d’Ampuis the smell of this wine is amazing. It brings a lot of cherries but also some earthy components and some sweeter wood. It just smells ripe and it filled my lungs and made me happy. If this and the previous wine would have taste like they have smelled they would have been perfect. Luckily they did not and there is still something to search for. This was a very lush and polished Pinot filled with flavor. Cherries, mushrooms, a sweeter component, ripe tannins and a high acidity. It is not as complex and nice as the smell of this wine was but the taste did improve a lot and 10hours after I opened the bottle it was much better than when I just opened it. The Chateau d’Ampuis changed over the 10 hours and showed how multilayered and complex it was but this wine really improved and this gives me the feeling both wines have great aging potential. This was actually the first red Burgundy I bought that I really enjoyed.

[David M. Bueker]

A lovely pair of notes. I am envious of the Bouchard (less so of the Guigal, but I don't care for his oak treatment).

Felix,

Thank you for the notes on the 2001 Guigal Ampuis.

The last time that I had this (last year), I was concerned with the difficulty in discerning fruit. Your notes are encouraging as I look forward to the couple that I have stashed away.

Ramon

2001 Côte Rotie Chateau d’Ampuis Guigal
2005 Corton Grand Cru Bouchard pere et Fils

Hi Felix,
great wines here! Did you ever taste the 1999 Côte Rotie Chateau d’Ampuis Guigal?
If you like Corton you should try the 2005 Corton from Bonneau du Martray, this is simply stunning

2001 Côte Rotie Chateau d’Ampuis Guigal
2005 Corton Grand Cru Bouchard pere et Fils

Hi Felix,
great wines here! Did you ever taste the 1999 Côte Rotie Chateau d’Ampuis Guigal?
If you like Corton you should try the 2005 Corton from Bonneau du Martray, this is simply stunning

Nope, I never had any other year of the Ampuis. I hope to be able taste some more vintages in the future since I found this 2001 a very interesting wine.
About the Corton I can say the same thing, never had a Corton before in my life. Tomorrow I will buy some more of the 05 Corton of Bouchard to lay away in my cellar.
I searched on the internet and saw that the wines of Martray are reasonably priced. Maybe I can find a bottle of his Corton here in the Netherlands for a good price. Can you tell me anything of the style of this house? The thing I liked about the Corton of Bouchard and also of the Ampuis is that they were both ripe and polished but also very pure and with a lot going on and both typical for the place they came from.
To many red Burgundies I had were lean and acidic, If you can tell me some houses in Burgundy that make Pinots in a riper style I would love to hear some good tips.