Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A tightly wound style, featuring black cherry, blackberry, mineral and spice flavors fused to a solid spine of acidity and tannins. Dense and long, with vivid acidity focusing the lingering aftertaste. Best from 2023 through 2038.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Volnay 1er Cru Les Caillerets Ancienne Cuvée Carnot is lovely, wafting from the glass with a youthfully reserved bouquet of wild berries, forest floor, potpourri and a subtle framing of new cedar wood. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, broad and satiny, with beautifully powdery tannins cloaked in cool, succulent fruit, concluding with a long finish. Right now, this Caillerets is quite reserved, but its structural finesse and harmony are already impressive.
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James Suckling
Bouchard’s first plot acquired in 1775. A wealth of spices and an earthy edge too. This has a bright red-fruit nose and some ripe aspects to the tannin texture on the palate. Open and easygoing. Drink or hold.
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Wine & Spirits
This grand, voluptuous Volnay has structural tension that takes it beyond the bold impact of its fruit. Some panelists picked up a reductive scent, which may contribute to its youthful sense of tension. Air brings out scents of dark red cherries and cherry blossoms, while the fruit-skin tannins remain substantial: a traditional Burgundy, built for the long haul.
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.