Domaine Robert Ampeau et Fils Meursault 1er Cru 'Perrieres' 2004 750ml

FRANCE : BURGUNDY : MEURSAULT

Chardonnay

FULL-BODIED, TERTIARY DEPTH, SEAMLESS TEXTURE, MINERAL, FIRM ACIDITY, OAK

Ampeau does not sell wine when it is made. It sells when the family decides it is ready, usually two decades later, and until then the bottles sit chalk-marked in six cold cellars around Meursault. Robert Ampeau died in 2004, the year of this harvest.

The estate's hectare sits in Perrières-Dessous, the lower section of the climat, on thin chalky limestone at 240 metres facing east. Barrel-fermented with malolactic in cask, 10 to 25% new oak, then about ten months in pièces with regular bâtonnage. Benjamin Lewin MW, tasting the range at the domaine, called the complexity of their Perrières the reason the vineyard is considered a candidate for promotion to Grand Cru.

Sarah Marsh MW judged 2004 good rather than great, but found it "seems to suit Meursault, accentuating its finer characters," and left the whites with firm acidity. Twenty-two years on, this is a mature bottle with the variability that comes with any late-released white Burgundy. Give it 45 minutes in a decanter; the importer says the last glass is usually the best one.

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