Winemaker Notes
This wine is intensely floral on the restrained, ultra-fresh and pure nose that blends both red and dark berries together with slightly exotic nuances of spice and tea. The mouth feel of the medium-bodied and overtly mineral-driven flavors is at once refined but powerful with excellent underlying tension suffusing the moderately austere, firm and built-to-age finish. This should be first-rate in time but patience is required.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 Volnay Taillepieds comes across as a blend of the Mitans and the Champans. It has the aromatic lift of the former and the textural richness of the later. This is a beautifully balanced wine loaded with sheer class and pedigree. Red berries, spices and flowers are some of the many nuances that are woven into the finish. The Taillepieds was made with 100% whole clusters, but unlike the Mitans, the whole clusters seem to mark this wine to a slightly lesser degree, at least today.
Rating: (91-93)
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.