Wines

Founded in 1200, the estate is now managed by Prince Felix zu Salm-Salm in the 32th generation. It is the oldest family-owned estate in Germany and cultivates vineyard sites on the Nahe region as well as in Rheinhessen. Bottle fermentation (Méthode champenoise) with 40 months on the lees.

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97 Points! The 2020 Pinot Noir Angel Flower is a soulful, complex wine that you don't really want to pick apart. Compared with the Pinot Noir Earth Smoke, which hails from the same small estate, it's not as obvious and takes longer to get to know. It's harmonious, round and calming, sitting comfortably in the mouth like a good friend visiting. It's my job to deconstruct wines, but I feel that to do so would be to destroy them. Pure, elegant, and quiet with a confident but unobtrusive line of acidity and airy-light chalky tannins that envelop the mouth. Rich intensity of sweet strawberry, fruit, fennel, thyme and smoky characters without any sense of heaviness. Initially, you might prefer Earth Smoke for its immediate aromatics, but I'd prefer to spend time with Angel Flower getting to know it. Over three days, I tried to get to the bottom of it but soon realized that might take years. - Rebecca Gibb, MW, Vinous Media

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96 Points! The 2020 Pinot Noir Earth Smoke is a massively different wine from its stablemate Angel Flower, giving a more expansive wine that blossoms in the mouth without any sense of weight. There's elegance and sense of precision. And do you know what? It feels special. If I were tasting blind, aromatically, I'd think it were a cool climate Syrah with sandalwood, fennel, agave and white pepper characters in abundance alongside pure cherry fruit. The finish is fresh and precise. - Rebecca Gibb, MW, Vinous Media

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96 Points! The 2020 Pinot Noir Earth Smoke is a massively different wine from its stablemate Angel Flower, giving a more expansive wine that blossoms in the mouth without any sense of weight. There's elegance and sense of precision. And do you know what? It feels special. If I were tasting blind, aromatically, I'd think … sandalwood, fennel, agave and white pepper characters in abundance alongside pure cherry fruit. The finish is fresh and precise. - Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous

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93 Points! The 2020 Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills Cuvée is a terrific introduction to the range. Crushed red berry fruit, mint, spice, rose petal and a touch of whole cluster savoriness are all beautifully delineated. This is such a gorgeous and expressive Pinot. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous

93 Points! Aromas of strawberry fruit leather give way to notes of turned earth and crushed black basalt. The palate is savoury, with underlying dried fruit flavours. Montmorency cherries, garden soil and clove, evolve into notes of savoury herbs and streaks of graphite minerality. - Decanter Magazine

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100 Points! An incredible debut wine, showing beautiful aromas of strawberries, cantaloupe, flint and dried seaweed, as well as iodine and dried flowers. Medium- to full-bodied, with Musigny-like power, a magical flex of tannins and closed, poised fruit. Endless. Nothing like this in California pinot noir. Drinkable now, but wait five years if you have the patience. - JamesSuckling.com

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98 Points! Aromas of seaweed, fresh and dried strawberries, salt and white pepper. Medium- to full-bodied, showing persistence, intensity and structure, with firm, muscular tannins. Long, lightly chewy finish. Needs three to four years to soften, but a solid wine. Best in 2028 and beyond. - JamesSuckling.com

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99 Points! Purple fruit with lavender and seaweed. Hints of volcanic salt and peaches. Full-bodied yet tensioned and very focused. Muscular and very, very long. Flexing with form and beauty. Uniquely Occidental. Mind-blowing sophistication with its own personality. - JamesSuckling.com

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99 Points! Spellbinding aromas of rose petals, strawberries, citrus and bark, with hints of lemongrass. Medium-bodied, tight and structured, this offers a captivating combination of linear intensity and calmness, so classy and sophisticated. A continued benchmark for American pinot noir. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

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93-95 Points! The 2022 Pommard Grands Epenots 1er Cru bides its time in the glass, opening discretely with blackberry, redcurrants, briar and forest floor. Quintessentially Pommard, graceful and focused. The oak here is neatly assimilated. The medium-bodied palate has finely sculpted tannins, poised and very refreshing. There's good substance on the finish with insistent grip. This will need 5-6 years in bottle, but this represents a very classy, refined take on the vintage, a very sophisticated Pommard.

Winemaker David Rebourgeon lives virtually next door to Thibaud Clerget, and they have almost opposite personalities; Rebourgeon is more quietly spoken and perhaps introverted. Yet what they both have in common is excellent wines. That’s definitely the case in 2022, where I think Rebourgeon oversaw a couple of marvelous cuvées, amongst the best reds in the Côte de Beaune. “Everything was harvested by hand with a good ambiance,” he tells me after failing to remember exactly when he started picking. “I do both pigeage and remontage but did a little less pigeage this year. The alcohol levels are between 13% and 13.5%. The yields were not too high: We had half a crop in 2021 and one and half of a crop in 2022. The Premier Crus are all matured in 20% to 25% new oak. I am very happy with the 2022s. It was a generous vintage with fine balance and depth.” Readers should check out his tremendous Volnay Santenots and Les Caillerets – amongst the best you will find, plus a seriously good Pommard Grands Epenots. These classically styled wines don’t sing and shout, but their virtues stealthily creep up on you! - Neal Martin, Vinous Media

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92-94 Points! The 2019 Pommard Clos des Arvelets 1er Cru was originally owned en totale by the family’s great grandmother and comes from vines planted in the Sixties. It has an expressive bouquet with vibrant raspberry, wild strawberry and crushed rock aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins. This has a fine bead of acidity, one of the domaine’s fleshier contributions to the vintage with a pinch of white pepper on the finish. Very fine. - Neal Martin, Vinous Media Learn More

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97 Points! Lovely ripe berries and strawberries with some juicy fruit and forest flower aromas that follow through to a full body with layers of fruit and fine tannins that spread across the palate. Oyster shell and granite-like undertones. Warm fruit character yet cool in the mouth. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification. - JamesSuckling.com

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95 Points! The 2021 Pinot Noir Rosella's Vineyard brings a more concentrated, serious feel and offers ripe mulberry and cherry fruit as well as scorched earth, graphite, and minerality, with nicely integrated oak. It's medium-bodied, concentrated, and focused, with a beautiful mouthfeel. It needs 2-3 years in the cellar (you'd be forgiven for enjoying a bottle today) and will evolve nicely over the following decade. - Jeb Dunnuck

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Les Lavières is situated east of the village of Savigny-lès-Beaune right in the middle of the hillside. The vines, from Michel's mother's side, came to the estate in the 1940s after the marriage of his parents.

Grapes were mostly de-stemmed and fermented in cement tank with native yeast. Following fermentation, the wine was transferred to barrels for malolactic fermentation and aging about 10 months in oak pièces (10-25% new barrels).

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Ampeau's Savigny-les-Beaune is drawn from a single plot in Aux Fourneaux on the vineyard's lower section (with village designation). The vines came from Michel's mother's side in the 1940s after the marriage of his parents.

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Volnay-Santenots is among the appellation's southernmost sites and closest to Meursault. It's situated on the mid-slope section of the hillside. Michel Ampeau's grandfather acquired the first vines in the early-1900s before his father, Robert, acquired more in the 1950s.

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Volnay-Santenots is among the appellation's southernmost sites and closest to Meursault. It's situated on the mid-slope section of the hillside. Michel Ampeau's grandfather acquired the first vines in the early-1900s before his father, Robert, acquired more in the 1950s.

Clay-limestone soils that are notably more red in appearance than its neighbors, signifying a greater presence of clay and a higher content of iron which lends more structure.

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