Understanding the Producers of Volnay

[R_Frankel]

Alan/Craig, thanks for that thread. Lots of interesting material there, though also interesting how some of it is out of date. In just a few years Volnay has turned to a number of young guns (Clerget, Rossignol, Bouley, others) advancing quality on their domaines. But seems like d’Angerville and Lafarge are still at the top of the heap.

[MChang]

I’m a big fan of angerville but their prices went up a ton from 14 to 16. ~300/btl for ducs is tough. Envoyer had some nice deals on 15s lately though. One of my best scores of last year was some 13 champans for ~50/btl though.

[Marcus_Goodfellow]

Interesting topic, an area I am learning at the moment after great experiences with the case of ‘96 Pousse d’Or 60 Ouvrees.

My focus has been on Angerville, Lafarge, and Montille with minor holdings in JM Bouley, Lafon, Pousse d’Or, Bouchard, Camille Giroud, Vaudoisey, Henri Boillot and Fontaine Gagnard. Targeting Taillepieds, Clos de Chenes, Santenots, and Caillerets. Jasper Morris’s “Inside Burgundy” is a good place to learn, extremely fond of the soft copy version in my iPad.

The 90, 91, 95, and 96 Pousse d’Or 60 Ouvrees bottlings are among my all time favorite Burgundy experiences. Gerard Potel’s work remains my favorite expression from the commune.

[Marcus_Goodfellow]

According to CT, these are the largest represented producers of Volnay vineyards (2015 vintage, number represented is bottles in CT)

Domaine Marquis d’Angerville 19.9% Bottles (3,413)
Domaine Michel Lafarge 8.1% Bottles (1,386)
La Pousse d’Or 6.9% Bottles (1,190)
Bouchard Père et Fils 6.1% Bottles (1,041)
Domaine Jean-Marc / Thomas Bouley 4.3% Bottles (729)
Domaine Y. Clerget 4.2% Bottles (715)
Domaine de Montille 4.0% Bottles (683)
Domaine Henri Boillot 3.6% Bottles (611)
Benjamin Leroux 3.2% Bottles (550)
Domaine Joseph Voillot 2.9% Bottles (489)
Nicolas Rossignol 2.6% Bottles (454)
Réyane et Pascal Bouley 2.4% Bottles (414)

How would those who have tasted a lot of these differentiate among these producers? I.e. by style, quality, etc. or other utterly subjective criteria? Or maybe another way of thinking about it, if I was going to build a tasting to represent the variations of Volnay, what would I want to bring to the table?

That’s quite a big question! And as most of these producers have evolved over the years, it’s open-ended.

Domaine Marquis d’Angerville: pure, satiny, elegant wines with depth and tension; today they are less austere / tight-knit than in the 1990s and before, but they still need time.

Domaine Michel Lafarge: a broader shouldered, wilder / more nobly rustic style, I hesitate to say earthier but certainly typically showing more tertiary notes than young d’Angerville; also, indeed a fortiori, reward long aging

La Pousse d’Or: formerly the poster child for whole cluster in the Côte de Beaune, beautifully floral and supple wines, today more modern and less distinctive

Bouchard Père et Fils: guess this is by virtue of the Cuvée Carnot, which is a well situated parcel of Caillerets. The 2016 and 2017 were pretty good, with Bouchard’s toasty/spicy cooperage signature

Domaine Jean-Marc / Thomas Bouley: a very serious young guy who spends a lot of time in the vines, lots of whole cluster here, and concentration for the vineyards not the cellar - really nice wines

Domaine Y. Clerget: a revived domaine with some very fine holdings and a dynamic young winemaker in Thibaud Clerget who has already attracted a lot of attention. Quite deep, saturated wines with persuasive purity of fruit. Evolving, it seems to me, in the direction of finesse.

Domaine de Montille: formerly austere wines for purists that took a long time to come around but often rewarded it; since the mid-1990s, more modern in style, less forbidding, with more new wood and a purer expression of fruit, though they still need bottle age

Domaine Henri Boillot: quite a gourmand, fleshy expression with a toasty wood signature - reds are getting lots of attention from Guillaume Boillot (a contemporary of the young Clerget) so worth watching

Benjamin Leroux: don’t know these so well

Domaine Joseph Voillot: a very classic style with supple tannins and lovely purity of fruit, they age well and drink well quite young too - somewhat under the radar

Nicolas Rossignol: rich, gourmand and vibrant wines that are very impressive, Rossignol used quite a bit of new wood at the start of his career but now uses hardly any

Réyane et Pascal Bouley: don’t know these so well

What a fantastic post! Thanks for the education

+1

[PCLIN]

Anyone has experience with Joseph Drouhin Clos des Chenes ? Tiny plot of only 0.25 Ha, so not much wine around. But I would think Drouhin’s house style would be perfect for Volnay.

[Howard_Cooper]

Interesting topic, an area I am learning at the moment after great experiences with the case of ‘96 Pousse d’Or 60 Ouvrees.

My focus has been on Angerville, Lafarge, and Montille with minor holdings in JM Bouley, Lafon, Pousse d’Or, Bouchard, Camille Giroud, Vaudoisey, Henri Boillot and Fontaine Gagnard. Targeting Taillepieds, Clos de Chenes, Santenots, and Caillerets. Jasper Morris’s “Inside Burgundy” is a good place to learn, extremely fond of the soft copy version in my iPad.

The 90, 91, 95, and 96 Pousse d’Or 60 Ouvrees bottlings are among my all time favorite Burgundy experiences. Gerard Potel’s work remains my favorite expression from the commune.

I also very much loved the wines from Gerard Potel. But, the wines made since he died after the 1996 vintage are made in a very different style. The wines made today are very lush and I don’t have a good sense yet whether they will age as well as the wines from Potel.

[Howard_Cooper]

In order of bottles owned, the producers for which I own the most Volnay are:

d’Angerville
Dublere
Louis Boillot (the producer that no longer exists)
Bouchard
Pousse d’Or
Clerget
Lafon

[MChang]

For me:

Rossignol
Angerville
Clerget
Bouchard
Lafarge

[William_Kelley]

Interesting topic, an area I am learning at the moment after great experiences with the case of ‘96 Pousse d’Or 60 Ouvrees.

My focus has been on Angerville, Lafarge, and Montille with minor holdings in JM Bouley, Lafon, Pousse d’Or, Bouchard, Camille Giroud, Vaudoisey, Henri Boillot and Fontaine Gagnard. Targeting Taillepieds, Clos de Chenes, Santenots, and Caillerets. Jasper Morris’s “Inside Burgundy” is a good place to learn, extremely fond of the soft copy version in my iPad.

The 90, 91, 95, and 96 Pousse d’Or 60 Ouvrees bottlings are among my all time favorite Burgundy experiences. Gerard Potel’s work remains my favorite expression from the commune.

Dank the 1991 60 Ouvrées in Norway last week and it was beautifully floral and lifted. I think the 1990 (which is one of the 1990s that have aged well) is a bit beeper and more complete though. Given how good 1989 Volnays can be, I would love to try that vintage, but I have never encountered it.

[MChang]

I’ve been underwhelmed by the recent Bouchard and Pousse reds I’ve had.

[William_Kelley]

Anyone has experience with Joseph Drouhin Clos des Chenes ? Tiny plot of only 0.25 Ha, so not much wine around. But I would think Drouhin’s house style would be perfect for Volnay.

There is quite a lot of variation within Clos des Chenes, in so far as some of it, towards Monthélie, is quite windy and the grapes don’t get as mature as the Volnay side and above all at the bottom. I believe Lafarge is located there, at the north-east corner of the vineyard where the grapes get ripest, so it is perhaps no accident that it is Lafarge’s example that has above all others made the reputation of Clos des Chenes.

[MChang]

Does jadot own vines there or do they purchase grapes?

[William_Kelley]

Does jadot own vines there or do they purchase grapes?

They own a parcel in Santenots (it’s Domaine Louis Jadot) and have a longstanding relationship with the owners of the monopole Clos de la Barre 1er cru from which they purchase grapes.

[MChang]

Oh I meant in Chenes, as they make that as well.

[James_Billy]

So, whole bunch/cluster seems popular in Volnay. Which producers generally destem 100% and which ones generaly only use small percentages of stems?

Cheers!

Sorry to bump my own post, but I think it’s a legitimate question (and I love to know the answer!)

[William_Kelley]

Oh I meant in Chenes, as they make that as well.

No, that is a Maison purchase from the Monthélie side.

[William_Kelley]

So, whole bunch/cluster seems popular in Volnay. Which producers generally destem 100% and which ones generaly only use small percentages of stems?

Cheers!

Sorry to bump my own post, but I think it’s a legitimate question (and I love to know the answer!)

I don’t think it is especially popular to be honest… Lafarge destem 100% and so do d’Angerville. The new management at Pousse d’Or destem. Old man Voillot used to retain about 1/3 stems but his son in law Jean-Pierre Charlot stopped that some time ago. Bouley uses lots of stems but is unusual in that. Rossignol plays around with it, depending on the character of the vineyard he is working with. De Montille also play around with destemming or not according to site and vintage, though they do use a lot for Taillepieds generally.

[MChang]

Is all of Santenots actually in meursault?

[William_Kelley]

Is all of Santenots actually in meursault?

Well, it is in the finage of Meursault but the appellation of Volnay…

[Alan_Rath]

Anyone has experience with Joseph Drouhin Clos des Chenes ? Tiny plot of only 0.25 Ha, so not much wine around. But I would think Drouhin’s house style would be perfect for Volnay.

Almost always very good, in my experience.