2013 L'Ambroisie Pinot Noir
SOLISTE…THE NEXT CHAPTER
Introducing the Magnificent 2013 Vintage
Exceptional in every way…A Tour de Force!
In 2005, we made our first Pinot Noir from the family vineyard (only 136 cases produced, that’s it!) located in a unique site that we believed would grant us the ability to craft wines with a style that would satisfy our infatuation for the great Burgundies that we love. In 2009, from the same site, we challenged ourselves to make our Pinot Noirs from single vineyard, single clone, and allocate a single cooperage barrel house in France to deliver uncompromised focus to each wine. The MonoClone® was born and we registered the trademark to protect our beliefs.
Having said that, we did not become stubborn about the MonoClone or infatuated by the idea, the wines had to deliver. If they did not, we would have gone back to blending the clones. Our MonoClone focus has produced spectacular wines, and so here we are, 8 years later with the 2013 harvest and Renaissance.
The 2013 vintage had what we thought was an ideal growing season for Pinot Noir, if there is such a thing. Since 2005, mother nature has thrown the kitchen sink at us, years of drought, fires, rain at the wrong time when it finally came, heat spikes days before harvest, red blotch, years with minuscule yields, to name a few. So when 2013 came, and it seems that week after week the weather was finally on our side, we did not want to jinx it, especially Don, and we kept thinking that we are going to pay at some point and that some cataclysmic evil forces were going to awaken and deliver another blow…it did not, Darth Vader did not show up.
L’AMBROISIE 2013…THE MYSTERIOUS ONE!
If L’Espérance is the most feminine, ethereal Pinot Noir that we produce, L’Ambroisie is the most masculine and enigmatic. Born from a legendary clone of great pedigree and situated on an amazing site in the middle of giant redwood trees. The wine density and concentration as well as its origins has created many of debates and conversation around the tables of our friends. The 2013 L’Ambroisie possesses all of the great qualities, and his reminiscent of the great wines around Vosnes-Romanée.
2013 L’AMBROISIE Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast
Tasting Notes
Since its introduction in the 2010 vintage, Claude has not created tasting notes,
“In the end, once you have tasted L’Ambroisie, I assure you, words cannot adequately describe how you will feel, it is like listening to Mozart or Miles Davis. I have always talked about that our wines are crafted with this great paradox of intensity and elegance so they can be the perfect pairing and marriage for great food, and this is certainly true for L’Ambroisie. But for me, just this once, I will retreat with a bottle and my glass, as a hermit without any distraction to experience it in deep Zen and simple bliss. Greatness is just best kept in the raw.”
This exceptional vintage captures all the alchemy that becomes great Pinot Noir, the intoxicating nose, powerful yet refined with layers of spice, sous-bois, truffles, and dark wild cherry, amazing length and complex finish (if there is one). Magical!!! Mysterious…L’Ambroisie…Soliste!