Wine Advisor
Arnaud Ente, Meursault Clos des Ambres 2014
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: William Kelley
The Arnaud Ente 2014 Meursault Clos des Ambres offers up a similar profile to the regular Meursault villages—apple, citrus, flowers—but complemented by suggestions of green pear and crushed chalk. On the palate, the wine is more concentrated, with serious chewy extract and mid-palate depth, its finish long, penetrating and grippy. This will really blossom with time in the cellar. The Clos des Ambres is produced from old vines, planted in 1952 to 1953, in an unusually stony part of the lieu-dit of En l'Ormeau where the water table is lower.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
(aged in a 14-hectoliter foudre and one new pièce): Bright, pale yellow. Lemon zest and crushed rock on the nose. Tightly wound, intensely flavored and classically dry; more reductive than the basic village bottling and more austere too. Showing little in the way of fleshiness or easy sweetness but this wine boasts terrific energy and finishes high-pitched and long, with a light touch.
About the Producer
Arnaud Ente left Coche Dury, the god of white wine, in 1991 to establish his own winery! After 20 years of hard work, after winning the French Wine of the Year Person of the Year in 2012, the reputation has gradually been competed by lovers of pure and meticulous white wine go! Mr. Michel Bettane has pointed out that in his nearly 30 years of wine evaluation, the only white wine that has given him praise and surprises turned out to be Arnaud Ente's Bourgogne Aligoté, he now thinks this should be a Grand Cru. The vineyard of Chateau Arnoant is less than 5 hectares, not only does it not have any grand crus, but 80% of the plots are Bourgogne and Village. Regardless of the grade of the plot, Arnaud Ente takes care of it in the same way, using the Lutte Raisonnée method, which strictly controls the yield to improve the quality of the grapes. Take 2012 as an example, the average output per hectare of the entire winery is only 1,900 liters, about 2,500 bottles, and some wines even have only 600 liters of output, such as Meursault Clos des Ambres with an average vine age of more than 50 years. This way of strictly controlling production is definitely the only way he can make great wines. Another standout is that the harvest is brought forward in order to obtain finer grapes. There is better, beautiful acidity in the harvested grapes, giving the wine more layer, variety, and complexity.
