Winemaker Notes
Exquisite fruit and spice aromas on the nose. On the palate, perfect harmony between structure and elegance: rich, complex, and voluptuous.
Pairs well with lamb, duck and light game.
Professional Ratings
-
Jasper Morris
Absolutely black centre to this with a massively concentrated bouquet, thus far hiding the detail. Inky depths. I would like to see this again after racking. The wine is not destabilised on the palate and the concentration is certainly exceptional, fresher at the finish. There is certainly an awful lot of wine here: buy it if you want a wine for 25 years time!
Barrel Sample: 92-95 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Cropped at a derisory 15 hectoliters per hectare, the quality of Bouchard's 2020 Volnay 1er Cru Les Caillerets Ancienne Cuvée Carnot is some compensation for the lack of quantity. Unfurling in the glass with aromas of dark berries, rose petals, plums, raw cocoa and orange rind, it's medium to full-bodied, layered and velvety, with powdery tannins, lively acids and a long, fragrant finish.
Barrel Sample: (92-94)+ -
Wine Enthusiast
Plummy with hints of spice, vanilla, and underbrush on the nose, this wine reveals a deep, seductive layer of rose. Silky in texture, and still evolving, the palate gently displays pure black-cherry notes, hinting at additional complexities that will develop with cellaring.
-
Wine Spectator
Ripe and open-knit, exuding juicy black cherry, plum and spice flavors. Feels soft, yet this has dense, refined tannins that gird the finish. Elegant, with a stony undercurrent.
-
James Suckling
Upfront floral and licorice aromas, but it needs some aeration for the red berries to emerge. A rich and fleshy wine for this appellation that’s associated with silky elegance. Crisp tannins and lively acidity keep this bright. Needs some time to settle down and open up. From a 3.76-hectare plot in this well known 1er Cru. From organically grown grapes. Drinkable now, but best from 2023.
-
Vinous
The 2020 Volnay Les Caillerets Ancienne Cuvée Carnot 1er Cru has a perfumed, more floral bouquet with more fruit intensity than Boillot's Chevret. Sous-bois touches percolate through the red fruit. The palate is medium- bodied with grainy tannins. Again, what feels like quite a lot of whole bunches, but the stems slightly occlude the terroir expression on the finish.
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.