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Côte Rôtie Château d'Ampuis, Etienne Guigal 2003

RegionRhône
Subregion France > Rhône > Northern Rhône > Côte Rotie
ColourRed
TypeStill
Grape VarietySyrah

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Tasting Notes

A wine worth filling up the trunk of the car with is the 2003 Cote Rotie Chateau d'Ampuis. This is staggering wine and as profound as most of the single vineyard Cote Roties are in some other vintages. The wine has a deep ruby/purple color and an extraordinary nose of smoky bacon fat and roasted meats, tapenade, black raspberry, cherry, and cassis. The intense aromatics are followed by equally thick, unctuous flavors with huge body, a voluptuous texture, and yet wonderful freshness, purity, and length. This is an amazing wine made from a remarkable blend of some of the best parcels in Cote Rotie - La Garde, La Clos, Grande Plantee, Pommiere, Pavillon Rouge, and Le Moulin. This wine should evolve for 20 or more years, but will never be undrinkable.

96+
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (170), April 2007

Starting with the 2003 Cote Rotie Chateau d'Ampuis, which comes from a blend of estate vineyards, it offers fabulous depth and richness, with off the hook aromas and flavors of blackcurrants, violets, espresso, vanilla bean and cured meats. Full-bodied, concentrated and downright hedonistic on the palate, with loads of texture, it still needs another 3-5 years in the cellar, but will evolve for a decade or more after that. Moving to the single vineyard releases, these are hands down some of the greatest wines ever made.

Robert Parker has been singing the praises of the wines of Marcel and Philippe Guigal for years now, and I'm happy to pick up the torch going forward. In 2003, harvest here occurred between the August 21 and 31, with yields down over 60%. The wines took five weeks to ferment dry, were never acidified, and spent roughly 48 months in new oak prior to bottling. What comes out of the bottle now is sheer magic.

96
Jeb Dunnuck, Wine Advocate (212), May 2014

Even though there's loads of fig, mocha and spice up front here, this is really holding back, with a dense core of tar, black licorice, espresso and bittersweet cocoa held in check by some serious grip. The minerality is there too; this should only blossom in the cellar. Best from 2009 through 2018.

94
James Molesworth, WineSpectator.com, January 2007

All six component parts of the 2003 Cote Rotie Chateau d’Ampuis possess remarkable intensity. The individual ratings are as follows: La Garde (93-95), La Clos (94-96), Grande Plantee (94-96), Pommiere (95-97), Pavillon Rouge (94-96), and Le Moulin (95-97). Powerful, rich, and full-bodied, with an abundance of sweet cassis and cherry fruit interwoven with smoky bacon, roasted meat, and dried herb notes, tremendous glycerin and sweetness to the texture, it is a big, voluptuously-styled Cote Rotie that should drink well for 15-20 years.

Marcel and Philippe Guigal, never content to rest on their already impressive credentials, announced that in the future, they expect to release another single vineyard Cote Rotie from a 3.7 acre parcel in the Viria vineyard on the Cote Brune. The first vintage or two will probably be added to the Chateau d’Ampuis. If the potential turns out to be as exceptional as they believe, lovers of these great wines will have a fourth single vineyard Cote Rotie called Viria to contemplate.

There are many admirable things about Marcel Guigal, but most significant is that he has been a qualitative locomotive that has brought attention to the Rhone Valley, and has raised the quality bar for the entire region. More importantly, he realizes that most consumers will have access only to his least expensive wines from the Cotes du Rhone, so he has made every effort to continue to increase the quality of both his white and red Cotes du Rhones. His Cotes du Rhone whites have jumped in quality as he has settled on a general blend of approximately 50% Viognier and the rest Roussanne, Marsanne, Clairette, Bourboulenc, and Grenache Blanc.

94/97
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (163), February 2006

With respect to the 2003 Cote Rotie Chateau d’Ampuis, the lowest rating merited by any of the components was 91, and the highest was 96. It is a spectacular effort boasting enormous richness, a wealth of glycerin, and a long, heady, concentrated finish. This profound 2003 may not eclipse the 1999, but it is a bigger wine, with more obvious alcohol, texture, and power. Will it develop the elegance of the gorgeous 1999?

93/96
Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (156), December 2004
Please note that these tasting notes/scores are not intended to be exhaustive and in some cases they may not be the most recently published figures. However, we always do our best to add latest scores and reviews when these come to our attention. We advise customers who wish to purchase wines based simply on critical reviews to carry out further research into the latest reports.