Beaune Premier Cru 'Les Tuvilains' 2014

Ambroise – or ambrosia in English – is, in Greek mythology, the food and drink of the Gods, bought to their home on Mount Olympus by snow white doves. We reckon that, if you were to hike up Olympus with a bottle of Bertrand Ambroise’s graceful, sumptuous, blackcurrant and leather-flavoured Premier Cru Beaune 'Les Tuvilains' 2008, old Zeus and his mates would be pretty blooming chuffed. They might even bestow immortality on you if they’re feeling really generous.

The Nuits-Saint-Georges estate, run by Michel Dupasquier, saw Bertrand Ambroise join the Domaine in 1976 when he married daughter Martine. When Mr. Dupasquier died in 1988, the vines passed to Martine, giving Bertrand and his wife ownership of a fine estate based in Nuits-St-Georges and Corton.

Bertrand and his family have developed a reputation for crafting full bodied, rich wines with good structure, plenty of flavour and a deep colour making them long lived wines that are equally enjoyable in their youth.

Bertrand Ambroise was born in Lyon and went to Lycée Viticole in Beaune where he met Martine, the daughter of Nuits-Saint-Georges vine-grower Michel Dupasquier. They married in 1976 and Bertrand started working with his father-in-law. He took over when Mr. Dupasquier died and expanded the Domaine from the original eight ha to the current 17 ha he owns and a further 7 ha of farm land.

The vines are planted on very compact clay soil, giving the wine a big structure comparable to those of Pommard. 2008 is a vintage that is now getting to full maturity with beautiful red fruit flavours and spices.

Harvested manually, the grapes are 100% de-stemmed and then undergo cold pre-fermentation (7 to 8 degrees), 30 days’ fermentation and vinification in French oak (40% new barrels) for 12 months. The wine is neither fined nor filtered, so there are no traces of eggs or dairy.