2010 - Cote Rotie Chateau d'Ampuis, E. Guigal

More closed than when I tasted it earlier this year, the 2010 Cote Rotie Chateau d’Ampuis is an incredible effort that’s made from 93% Syrah and 7% Viognier. Coming from the estate’s top sites and aged 38 months in new oak, it has no problem standing beside the top three single-vineyard releases. Crème de cassis, vanilla bean, smoked meats and licorice all flow to a full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, structured Cote Rotie that needs another 5-6 years of bottle age, but will keep for 2-3 decades.

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?