TN: 2017 Roblet-Monnot Volnay Saint-Francois

  • 2017 Domaine Roblet-Monnot Volnay Saint-Francois - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay (9/7/2021)
    One of the joys of Burgundy is discovering producers like this. Dark ruby in colour, this is a fresh and gentle wine but yet packs quite a punch. Glorious red strawberry and cherry fruits, wonderful acidity and drive towards a nuanced and layered finish which I really like. Textbook Volnay, and some 1er cru fruit I believe.

This is a really good producer! Visited them last year and was as struck by the quality as I was perplexed that they weren’t being regularly covered by the press (TWA last reviewed them in the 2006 vintage).

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Who would you compare them to stylistically? Have access to some of their wines at what seems to be reasonable pricing.

Tremblay but less new oak.

Sold!

Just got 432 email offers for Roblet-Monnot :joy:
At double the price :worried:

:lying_face:

The Burgundy market corrects fast these days…

Pascal Roblet has been working well for a long time though. Here’s my blurb from my 2019 vintage report:

My tasting with Pascal Roblet was one of my most stimulating visits on the Côte de Beaune this year, so it is with some consternation that I see that this nine-hectare domaine, based in Bligny-lès-Beaune, hasn’t been covered in these pages for over a decade. Certified organic, Roblet is a viticultural pioneer: in 2002, just two years after Lalou Bize-Leroy, he stopped “rognage” (i.e. trimming) of his vines to avoid cutting their apical shoots; in his holdings in the Hautes-Côtes, where lower planting densities and higher-trained vines permit it, he works in permaculture. Once considered eccentric—and indeed still at odds with the dominant approach to viticulture, which sometimes seems to owe more to 18th-century geometric garden design than to any understanding of vines’ physiology—Burgundy has at last evolved enough for such initiatives to be thought avant grade (even if at this address they have been in place for the better part of two decades).

If work in the vineyards is forward-thinking, winemaking is founded on very traditional principles: long cuvaisons and long élevage. Destemming or not, depending on the vintage and cuvée, Roblet works only with pigeage, doing nothing for the first two weeks of cuvaison and punching down for the following two. In the cellar, élevage lasts between 18 and 24 months, and the presence of new oak these days is minimal—one of the most notable evolutions since this domaine was last reviewed in The Wine Advocate—with Roblet increasingly favoring 400-liter barrels in lieu of 228-liter pièces. The results are superb: deep, concentrated and complex wines, with considerable aging potential, built around beautifully powdery tannins. Quite why this high-quality domaine languishes in comparative obscurity escapes me; but when the wines are this good, it is only a matter of time until people start paying attention, so I encourage readers to acquaint themselves with Domaine Roblet-Monnot while they still can.

i had a 2010 taillepieds from him a few months ago and was less impressed. certainly wasn’t ready to drink with some grippy tannins pervading but i was hoping to find a new favorite in volnay to lafarge and d’angerville. this wasn’t it.

Cheers William for your input! Have access to their 1ers as well so will seek out a couple to try. Which would you recommend out of the Taillepieds, Brouillards and Pitures?

The Tremblay comparison is interesting I’ve only had one Tremblay before but they are both very elegant and fined-boned wines.

It’s not entirely a coincidence as Cécile and Pascal were partners and shared a winery at one stage I believe, separating in the mid-2000s.

Taillepieds is the “best” wine in the cellar in the sense of being the most complete and built-to-age. Brouillards might be a bit more accessible young. But I’d be happy with any of them, and the Hautes-Côtes is very good, too.

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Thank you for the backstory, William. Would see these on closeout from time to time but never bothered to take the leap, perhaps for the reason you mentioned about how little chatter they get contributing to it. Should have done my due diligence, lol.

Any tangible relation to Bachelet-Monnot? Websites mention an unspecified Uncle in their write-ups.

I don’t believe so.

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I’ve visited on and off for a few years - only off when we couldn’t define a rdv. One of the top producers in 2017 - from any village - and certainly from the Côte de Beaune…
Emotional wines I wrote after my first visit…

Emotional wines captures my sentiments exactly!

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I’ve been drinking these since the 2002 vintage. I think part of the issue is that despite having a great importer, the volume of production here is the issue. They just don’t make a lot of wine, and not very much comes to the US. The Taillepieds is excellent, but the Brouillards is a sleeper. The Auxey is quite tasty for a value.

Glad to see that Mr. Kelley is reviewing the wines. Not surprised that you like them.

I worked with the wines back in their Weygandt represented Era, '05 '06 wines…
The Arvelets is a standout sleeper in the range to me.
I was amazed at the bags and bags of sugar laying around…never seen so much at a winery during a visit. Granted, '07 and '08 weren’t the ripest of years.
I have always liked the wines a ton.
It is a shame that they don’t really see the light of day in the US.
Where does the Sorting Table (US importer, I think) send those wines…?

I stumbled into some 2002 Volnay Pitures a few years ago, which i thought was quite good. A little on the opulent side, though. I don’t think he does a Pitures every year. I’m supposed to have one bottle left, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere.

The trend over the years here (as pretty much everywhere else, for that matter) has been less new oak, and in Pascal’s case, larger barrels, too. Back in 2002, IIRC he was also working with Séguin-Moreau, who were at what one might call “peak mocha” in that era.

I found a 1993 from him, but I didn’t open it yet - will be interesting to try to draw the dots.

Bought a few of these in early 2000s - solid wines, quite dark and ripe. Borderline extracted and oaky, but good fruit base.