Domaine Robert Ampeau et Fils Meursault 1er Cru 'La Pièce Sous le Bois' 2002 750ml

FRANCE : BURGUNDY : MEURSAULT

SUSTAINABLE : Chardonnay

MED-BODIED, HAZELNUT, BAKED APPLE, LEMON CURD, CRUSHED STONE, NEUTRAL OAK

Domaine Robert Ampeau holds its wines in cold cellars for decades before release — this is the house's founding principle, unchanged since Robert Ampeau began bottling in the 1950s. The current release is the 2002. At 24 years, La Pièce Sous le Bois has fully resolved its primary fruit; what remains is Meursault in secondary development: toasted hazelnut, baked stone fruit, a salty mineral persistence that lingers well past the finish.

La Pièce Sous le Bois sits at the highest elevation of Meursault's Premier Cru hillside, just below the forest line, on clay-limestone soils that lean toward the precision of Puligny-Montrachet. The 1.6-hectare parcel was the last Robert Ampeau acquired, in 1973. The traditional, oxidative winemaking — once considered old-fashioned — turned out to protect these wines from the premature oxidation that damaged many 1990s and early-2000s white Burgundies.

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