Profile: Guy Amiot

13.11.2017billn

Tasted in Chassagne with Fabrice Amiot, 19 October 2017.

Domaine Guy Amiot & Fils
13 Place du Grand Puits
21190 Chassagne-Montrachet
Tel: +33 3 45 63 81 31
www.domaine-amiot.com

Domaine Guy Amiot & Fils is, today, managed by a 4th generation of winemakers in the Amiot family – Thierry and Fabrice. Today it is a domain of nearly 10 hectares, with vines in Chassagne, Puligny, St.Aubin and Santenay.

The domaine was ​started by Thierry and Fabrice’s great-grandfather – Arsène Amiot – in 1920, and in the 1930s he was actually bottling wine for the Parisian clientelle of his laundry business. It was a small domaine of just 2 hectares but with a fine selection of vineyards – one of which, named Dents du Chien was renamed in 1937 – to Montrachet! Arsène’s son, Pierre, took on his father’s domaine in 1935, followed by his son, Guy, when Pierre died in 1985.

Fabrice on 2017:
2017 yes it was good, it was also very ripe with 13.5-13.8° but the reds, with the same sun, were at 12.5-12.8° and needed just a little sugar to bring them to 13%.

Fabrice on 2016:
Yes, 2016 was also good but unfortunately there wasn’t much because of the frost. We are 70% down in 2016 – we will be bottling those in the Springtime.

The wines…

Although I have known the wines for a while trough their Swiss importers, this was my first visit chez Amiot, and I have to say that their 2016s are on a high level – some are exceedingly covetable!

2016 Bourgogne Aligoté Les Grand Champs
From Corpeau (Puligny) – 80 year-old vines.
Wide, fresh, a little greenery. Fresh, wide, bright, a little citrus. Fine depth and lovely wave of finishing flavour. Long, lovely wine – I find many fine aligotés this year!

2016 Bourgogne Chardonnay
Also some freshness, though these aromas are tighter than the aligoté. A little more sucrosity and a fine line – hmm, it’s delicious here. Slightly saline and with a tasty finishing minerality. This is lovely again. Yum!

The following wines were all from tank, many a little ‘troubled’ due to some lees in suspension:

2016 Bouzeron
A relatively new cuvée, half a hectare of more than 80 year-old vines.
A deeper nose – and of good, mineral, width too. Lots of freshness, lots of energy – but tasty flavour to match too. Excellent, with small waves of mouth-watering finishing flavour. This is delicious.

2016 Chassagne-Montrachet
Hmm, a fresh and wide nose. Vibrant and mineral in style. Fine, mouth-watering flavour with a modest sucrosity. A wine that need its elevage still, but the shape, energy and character of this wine are very promising.

2016 St.Aubin 1er En Remilly
Hmm, lots of aromatic depth here, a vibration of reduction too. Bang – energy! Delicious mouth-watering flavour. All the while a little reduction accompanies, but this is really super stuff. Bravo.

2016 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Macherelles
A tight nose, but a subtle freshness of citrus notes support. Elevage will bring more definition, but here is a fine and complex blend of fresh agrume flavours. This is both refreshing and delicious – it will only get better before bottling. Yum!

2016 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Les Baudines
Also a tight nose but with just a little extra attractiveness to those citrus notes that show themselves. Supple, mineral, layered wine. Plenty of freshness, waves of fresh finishing flavour. Really a super wine.

2016 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er La Maltroie
A more open and impressive nose – volume and depth here – a little accent of reduction – it’s really inviting. Vibrant, growing intensity, mineral but without austerity – just a little saline accent to a long line of slowly mouth-watering flavour. This is excellent!

2016 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Les Vergers
Like the last, here are many dimensions of complex, mineral and fresh aroma – super! Still a hint of gas in this one. Big in the mouth, fresh, beautifully complex. Really a fine, fresh almost a caresse of a wine. Really super, and with such a great wave of pretty finishing citrus flavour.

2016 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Clos St.Jean
Really a beautiful nose of elegant clarity and fresh mineral notes. Supple, less demonstrative than the last two wines but with a more concerted line of very fine flavour, that goes long, long, long. Great potential here, the finish is so persistent…

2016 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Champsgains
More profound – perhaps linked to an attractive note of reduction but with beautiful citrus notes too. Wide, fresh and slowly changing all the time – essentially a broad flavour of citrus and mineral elements combined. Lovely finishing waves of flavour too. Bravo!
2016 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Caillerets
Like all the turbid wines, this has a very tight nose, just a little fine citrus escapes the glass. Bigger in volume than all the previous wines – an assault of complex citrus notes followed by a slow diminuendo of finishing, fresh, saline flavour. This should be great!

2016 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Les Demoiselles
A totally different aromatic character – a subtle, toasty reduction hiding something deeper. Lots of volume again, but here with just a little silky flesh on the bones. Super mineral, faintly accented with sweet-nothings. This is already a super-attractive wine, though today with that little reductive toast in the finish too. Still a wine in the making but what a wine!

2015 Bourgogne Chardonnay Cuvée Flavie
A deep though only modestly open nose. Beautifully silky texture, a hint of fat and fine layered flavour. Such a lot of wine here for the label. Excellent, and with a fine finish too.

2015 Chassagne-Montrachet Vieilles-Vignes
Also a little tight but showing much more depth than the bourgogne – a nice vibration of minerality here. More sweetness of flavour but also a mouth-watering width of flavour too. Mineral and absolutely delicious wine.

2015 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Les Champsgains
This is open – yellow citrus, and a mineral impression in plenty of aromatic volume. Again such a mineral style – transcending its vintage with a beautiful balancing freshness and just a little silken weight to the texture. This is brilliant for 2015 bravo!

2006 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Les Caillerets
A more overt golden colour. A deep nose which mixes both freshness and honey, and there’s a certain vibrance of energy too. Supple, some fat to the texture, obviously for drinking now, but the width and slow development of largely mineral flavour, infused with sugared-lemon and honey, is very engaging indeed. A little creaminess of age creeping into the absolutely delicious finish. A wine in the ‘now.’

Les Rouges:
There’s a Chassagne 1er cru too, but the 2016 wasn’t shown as there’s practically zero!

2016 Bourgogne Pinot Noir
Good depth of colour. Slightly reduced but with a fine and concentrated note of fruit escaping. Faint gas. Nice fresh intensity here and lots of volume. Fresh, delicious pinot noir – easy to say, harder to do!

2016 Chassagne-Montrachet
Also a good deep colour. Dark fruit here, virtually free of reduction and with just a hint of that classic herby Chassagne character. Wider, less overt volume but clearly more concentration and a quickly growing intensity. There is a little tannin to accompany the ride here, but all nicely ripe. Long finishing too. Excellent but for the cellar!

2015 Bourgogne Pinot Noir Cuvée Simone
Also here is just a little reduction – making the aromas more profound and dark. Ooh, this has volume, like the 2016, and there is a simply delicious combination of joyous fruit and just enough structure to hold everything in focus. Simply a great BPN – bravo…
2015 Chassagne-Montrachet Vieilles-Vignes
A deep and fine dark fruit – absolutely fresh and inviting. Bigger in the mouth than the 2016. Fresh-flavoured, lots of fine fruit, no over maturity – just a great 2015. Bravo.

2015 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Clos St.Jean
A slightly more composed version of the VV – a concentration of dark-red fruits. Also more concentrated than the VV but less about volume and more about composed, concentrated delivery of fresh fruit. Again a wine that is simply excellent and beautifully, not overly ripe. Clean, classic, deliciously flavoured.
Well done – the 2015s are simply excellent here, the 2016s whilst showing the purity and freshness of the vintage remain largely work in progress, but they are super works i think.

Agree? Disagree? Anything you'd like to add?

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