Domaine Joseph Voillot Volnay Les Champans Premier Cru 2016

  • 94 Decanter
  • 94 Wine
    Spectator
  • 92 Robert
    Parker
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Domaine Joseph Voillot Volnay Les Champans Premier Cru 2016 Front Bottle Shot
Domaine Joseph Voillot Volnay Les Champans Premier Cru 2016 Front Bottle Shot Domaine Joseph Voillot Volnay Les Champans Premier Cru 2016 Front Label

Product Details


Varietal

Region

Producer

Vintage
2016

Size
750ML

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Somm Note

Winemaker Notes

Professional Ratings

  • 94
    The most brooding of Jean-Pierre Charlot’s Volnays, the Champans reveals savoury aromas of plum, cassis, cherry, grilled meats and rich soil. On the palate the wine is very concentrated and full-bodied, with a deep core of vibrant fruit and a rich framing of ripe tannins. Excellent and full of potential.
  • 94
    Sappy raspberry, cherry and spice flavors mark this supple red. Elegant and succulent, with floral and mineral hints adding depth. The firm structure meshes nicely as the finish lingers. Shows fine intensity and balance. Best from 2023 through 2040.
  • 92
    The 2016 Volnay 1er Cru les Champans is the largest of Jean-Pierre Charlot's cuvées this year at fifteen barrels. It offers attractive raspberry and wild strawberry scents on the enticing nose, the oak neatly integrated and the terroir showing through. Some lovely undergrowth scents emerge with time. The palate is well balanced, quite broad-shouldered in style with firm tannin, not quite as nuanced as the Caillerets or Fremiets but at least there is substance and girth on the finish. This is what you might call a solid but delicious Champans.
    Barrel Sample: 90-92

Other Vintages

2018
  • 93 Wine
    Spectator
  • 91 Robert
    Parker
Domaine Joseph Voillot

Domaine Joseph Voillot

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Domaine Joseph Voillot, France
Domaine Joseph Voillot Winery Image
In July of 2014 Joseph Voillot died in the house he grew up in, just in front of Volnay's thirteenth-century church. Joseph was a vigneron through and through, the fourth generation of his family to manage the estate, and he represented the old breed of Burgundian growers. On the day of his funeral, Volnay overflowed with those paying homage.

Much as Joseph, son-in-law Jean-Pierre (pictured) came up steeped in Burgundian culture. His father managed grower relations and wine selections for the then family négociant firm of Bouchard Père et Fils, and it was a natural for Jean-Pierre to study enology. After his degree, he embarked on a stint as a courtier, or local broker, of wine in Beaune, and fell in love with one of the three daughters of Joseph Voillot. That marriage put him at the right hand of Joseph, and for fifteen years the two worked together until Joseph's retirement in 1995. During those years, Jean-Pierre joined the staff at Beaune's viticultural school and taught winemaking to all manner of students, both French and foreign.

In the late 1990s, shortly after becoming managing director at the domaine, he undertook a series of small steps that came to be systematic changes. In the vines, he moved to sustainable farming. In the cellar, he did away with fermenting with a percentage of stems because he liked the essence of fruit. He did trials on the length of barrel ageing, and came to bottle his premier crus after roughly sixteen months in wood followed by a month in steel (fourteen months in barrel for the Villages; twelve to fourteen for the Bourgogne—with both classes also receiving a month in steel to rest and clear before bottling). The two Meursaults moved to a roughly fourteen month barrel regimen (Joseph left the wines of both colors in barrel significantly longer).

Jean-Pierre has also shied more and more away from new oak, moving from around 30% new barrels for the premier crus to today using 10-20%. He lowered the sulfur additions. He experimented with filtration systems, and for several vintages bottled the premier crus without filtration. Eventually, he settled on one very light filtration at the mis, if necessary, because for him this gave the wine just that extra little touch of lift and purity. No fining for the reds; a light fining of the whites.

He's an old soul, Jean-Pierre, one quite committed and modest. Elegant in argument and clear in vision, he has no truck with tra-la-la. He cares deeply about Burgundy's traditions and the structure of the family domaine, and the cultural and artistic diversity that such things inspire (which is why this deeply pragmatic man won't go for strict organics in what is a wet, northern climate: the first rule is to have a harvest to survive; everything else flows from that).

He is, as Neal Martin has written, the proverbial winemakers' winemaker, known above all for purity of fruit, finesse, and clear expressions of terroir.

Today the domaine farms parcels spread across Volnay and Pommard (plus a piece in Beaune's 1er cru Coucherias, which is partially declassified into the Bourgogne). All of the Villages parcels are farmed the same, and all of the premier cru parcels are treated the same; ditto for how these wines are treated in the cellar. The differences come from the sites.

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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.”

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Volnay Wine

Cotes de Beaune, Burgundy

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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.

DBWDB6612_16_2016 Item# 509121

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