Domaine de Montille Volnay En Champans Premier Cru 2017
- Decanter
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Wilfred
Wong -
Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
This major Volnay 1er Cru is a fresh and vibrant wine marked by red fruits (cherries), a fully body, and a tannic structure that eschews rigidity. On the palate is it ample and structured and gains real elegance over time.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
There were only 50% whole bunches here in 2017 - it's usually more like 65% - but that was because yields were such that Brian Sieve couldn't fit all the bunches into the tanks. Pale in colour, this is very spicy and serious, with lot of pepper spice, savoury tannins, sweet berry fruit and racy acidity.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Domaine de Montille Volnay 1er Cru En Champans is a generous wine. TASTING NOTES: This wine packs weight and richness on the palate. Enjoy its bold aromas and flavors of black fruit and earth with duck confit, Morels, and wild rice. (Tasted: October 28, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Volnay 1er Cru Champans displays notions of red cherries, potpourri, dried herbs and rich soil tones. On the palate, the wine is medium-bodied, fine-boned and tensile, and while it's somewhat austere in profile its tannins are nicely integrated. It will likely flesh out with further élevage and time in bottle.
Barrel Sample: 90-92 -
James Suckling
Much firmer than most people expect from Volnay, but this remains elegant, thanks to the fine-grained tannins and lively acidity. Good length. Try in 2022.
Barrel Sample: 91-92
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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.