Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2014 tasting, the 2014 Volnay 1er Cru Les Caillerets "Ancienne Cuvée Carnot" has a rather conservative bouquet, earthy and missing some fruit intensity. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin and attractive red cherry, cranberry and blueberry fruit. This Volnay actually improves as it goes along, and the finish conveys satisfying depth and a gentle grip, the aftertaste long and persistent. This is a strong Volnay from Bouchard Père, and it comes recommended. Tasted September 2017.
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Wine Spectator
Meaty and dense, this fresh red offers black cherry, earth and spice flavors. Shows fine balance and tension, with a latent mineral element, finishing with an accent of sweet oak. Best from 2019 through 2032.
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James Suckling
Fruity and open nose with black cherries and stones. Light-to medium-bodied, very delicate and silky. Shows you what it has right away. Gentle palate.
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Wine & Spirits
From the first vineyard purchased by the Bouchard family, in 1775, previously owned by the Carnots, this substantial Volnay ages in a majority of new oak (60 to 85 percent). There's plenty of wine to back up the oak, with tart cherry flavors, notes of exotic black fruit and fresh scents of sage-like herbs. The fruit complexity and mineral darkness of the tannins suggest holding this for eight to ten years.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
On the hillsides between Pommard and Meursault, Volnay is one of two villages in the Côte de Beaune of Burgundy that is recognized for its extraordinary Pinot Noir. Pommard is the other; the rest of the villages are most known for some of the most exceptional Chardonnay in the world. While Volnay Pinot Noir tends to be light in color and more delicate than that of Pommard, they typically stand on par with each other in regards to quality and demand.
Volnay can’t claim any Grands Crus vineyards but more than half of it has achieved Premier Cru status. Volnay Premiers Crus vineyards stretch across the entire village from northeast to southwest, abutting and actually falling “into” Meursault. Where they merge is a vineyard called Les Santenots. Pinot Noir grows in this Meursault Premier Cru but since that village is most associated with stellar whites, the Pinot Noir from Les Santenots, takes the name Volnay Santenots. Immediately above it are Volnay’s other prized Premier Cru, Le Cailleret, Champans, Clos des Chênes and Le Cailleret.
Volnay Pinot Noir are earthy with red or blue fruit. Aromas such as smoke, herbs, forest, cocoa and spice are common and on the palate they are gorgeous and concentrated with finesse but won’t truly charm you without some age.