Robert Ampéau is one of the most distinctive and eccentric producers in the entire Côte de Beaune, a domaine that has operated according to its own entirely independent logic for decades, releasing wines only when the family judges them to be genuinely ready to drink regardless of commercial convention or market pressure. The estate is based in Meursault and produces wines from both red and white Premier Cru sites across the Côte de Beaune, including holdings in Beaune, Volnay, Pommard and Meursault. The lead times between vintage and release at Ampéau can range from ten to thirty years, meaning that bottles currently on the market may represent harvests from the 1980s, 1990s or 2000s, already aged and developed to a degree that would be impossible to replicate in normal commercial production.

Beaune Premier Cru Clos du Roi is one of the finest and most age-worthy red Premier Cru sites in the Beaune appellation, a 12-hectare vineyard on the mid-slope of the hillside immediately above the town. The site produces Pinot Noir of considerable structure and mineral depth on its limestone and clay soils, with a character that is firmer and more age-worthy than many of the other Beaune Premier Crus. A 2002 red Burgundy from a site of this quality would, under normal circumstances, be reaching full maturity by now; from Ampéau, whose wines are already aged in cask and bottle before release, the wine arrives on the market at a far more advanced and complex stage of development than any other 2002 from the appellation would typically offer.

Robert Ampéau wines are among the most unusual and sought-after propositions in Burgundy for collectors who understand the domaine’s extraordinary approach to release timing. These are wines that have already been aged on behalf of the consumer by one of Burgundy’s most individual and unconventional producers, arriving on the market in a state of developed maturity that is impossible to replicate outside the particular conditions of the Ampéau cellars. For those who have encountered Ampéau’s wines before, this 2002 Beaune Clos du Roi requires no further explanation. For those who have not, it represents one of the most genuinely unusual wine propositions currently available.

Garnet with a brick-red rim from two decades of age and a complex, fully evolved nose of dried cherry, forest floor, leather, iron, dried flowers, clove and the distinctive aged Burgundy character of mature Pinot Noir from a structured Premier Cru site. Medium-bodied with silky, fully integrated tannins, excellent acidity providing remarkable freshness and a long, complex, savoury finish of great charm. Drink now through 2032.