Tasted in Volnay with Pierrick Bouley, 06 March 2017.
Domaine Réyane & Pascal Bouley
5, Place de l’Eglise
21190 Volnay
Tel: +33 3 80 21 61 69
http://pascalbouley.com
Pierrick on 2016:
“We harvested between 12 and 15 hl/ha. All our parcels had some frost except Champans and Clos des Chênes. My grandfather used to say that if there’s frost in Champans, then it will be a bad year – and the first part of the rows were indeed touched. The quality was super for anyone who spent time on triage. We have 4 cuvées fermented without sulfur – they have now been sulfured but I like to wait as long as possible – I’m really happy with how they are showing. I think our wines are a little less rich, but maybe that’s good versus the average 15!”
Pierrick on 2015:
“We did a couple of days post-fermentation maceration – I think it adds to the complexity. Our 15s will mainly be bottled in about 1 month – I’ll be aiming for 15mg free sulfur. Roncerets and Santenots was a test as they were combined as they would have been such small cuvées. The old vines brought less than 12 hl/ha, the rest more like 15. We have lots of private clients here and typically a vintage is sold over 2-3 years, but our stocks are very low.”
“We’re pruning more and more Guyot-Poussard to try to protect the vines more. Also, we’re working the soil a little less – I don’t like to disturb it too much, so we’re now ploughing just twice in the year. ”
The wines…
What a great range of wines presented by Pierrick – so many covetable bottles – and you don’t need to be the expensive ones either!
Normally this is sold to the négoce, but they liked it so much that they kept some this year. One year in old barrels…
A deep nose and quite some volume – delicious sweet fruit notes too. Hmm, this is lovely in the mouth – ripe but fresh and intense – a little fat and a lot of delicious layered flavour. This is a super wine – approaching a pale rosé in colour. It tastes great!
30% gamay, just other side of RN74 below Volnay. Like the aligoté they don’t always commercialise this, but they will make an exception this year.
A deep, layered ripe but fresh nose – really attractive. Good volume in the mouth – fresh flavoured with a decent and growing intensity – despite its round shape. Simply a lovely combination of freshness and crunchy fruit. Delicious again!
Also from the bottom of the Volnay commune.
A more insistent, bright red fruit note – again with good freshness, and here, with flowers. Finer texture and more intensity of penetrating fruit flavour here – great and fun bourgogne – layers of finishing flavour. This is villages Volnay in any other vintage!
2015 Monthelie Aux Fournereaux
Ooh, this is a beacon of bright red and again insistent fruit. Supple, nice over the palate with good freshness, energy and complexity. Really good layers and a certain extra mid-palate weight vs the the bourgogne. Really deliciously fresh and tasty wine – a subtle saline suggestion in the finish too – long, almost dry material in the finish. Excellent.
2015 Volnay
An assembly of about 10 parcels – 3 at the top of the village but most just below the lower 1er crus.
Deeper colour. Here the nose is higher-toned. More direct, more mineral, super intensity. Back to the crunchy fruit style but here with a little modest tannin to support too. Very tasty in the finish – and it holds superbly well.
Vines on the hillside just above Rugiens, just one tiny parcel at the bottom of the hill – youngest vines are 60 here – oldest 90.
A really beautiful nose – some flowers and a very fine fruit. A little weight, a beautiful line – complex and changing – changing even more in the mid-palate this is a beauty and I would say close to 1er cru quality – bravo. Almost a little pepper in the finish too. Bravo!
White soil, lots of limestone – it’s like the Clos des Chênes. Bought in 2007 – ‘It has taken a little while but for the last 5 or-so years I’ve become very happy with this.’ This was a villages until reclassified in about 2006/7.
Gorgeous, fresh red berries and flowers here – really gorgeous. Lots of volume, a little more concentration in the mid-palate too – layers of flavour – what a great wine – again! Simply super!
2015 Volnay 1er Robardelles
At the top on the road between Chevrets and Santenots Dessous – usually the most concentrated. It’s an old (70) vine of almost half a hectare but only 2 barrels in 2015… not lots of tannin here – it’s for drinking younger.
Another fine clarity of aroma – here darker fruit compliments the floral notes. Layered and intense flavour, a silken texture, long and lingering but always with more than enough balancing acidity just another super wine… A finish that you can chew on for plenty of time…
2015 Volnay 1er Ronceret
Right in the middle of the 1ers at the top of the vineyard. Quite deep soil but with lots of small rocks
A vivid and concentrated fruit almost too much! Lots of volume – a wine whose intensity and mouth-watering style grows and grows. A little more mineral than the last – wider in the mid-palate – more open finishing – but again quite mineral.
2014 Volnay 1er la Grand Champs
The monopoly of this 0.24 hectare 1er cru section of the Grand Champs vineyard.
Lots of colour. A nose similar to the last – vivid and intense – almost volatile at this stage of elevage. Fresh, fine, very wide, high-toned fruit. A good mid-palate weight of flavour here – more considered, fresh but not with overt energy. Layers in the finish – it’s a great finish. Yum!
2015 Volnay 1er Santenots
From Santenots Blanc – ‘When grandfather bought it, it was indeed planted to white but eventually he decided to change.’
The Santenots was a tiny cuvée, already bottled at the harvest as it was so small, but in magnums!
From the northern side of the vineyard, close to Carelles Sous la Chapelle. 14° natural – made with roughly 20% whole clusters.
A very much finer nose of depth and beautiful floral top notes – hyper complex and it doesn’t get much better than this. Fresh, decent volume, layers of flavour, then more layers of flavour – a good mineral style but with a sweetness of ripe fruit too. Clearly a wine to wait a little longer for, but also really a great, great wine – bravo!
2014 Volnay 1er Clos des Chênes
From 2 parcels, a large top to bottom parcel in the middle of the vineyard and a smaller parcel at the southern end of the vineyard next to Monthelie – both above the road. Maybe 10% whole clusters here – depends on the vintage, but usually it’s only this and the Champans that might get some whole clusters. More remontage than pigeage these days – ‘it is always too easy to extract this wine.’
Not particularly deeper colour than the last. Wide, good freshness, faintly warm-spiced and there’s a modest floral note too. In the mouth this is large, growing in intensity, and with just a little undercurrent of structure too. Bracing flavour though – such a young wine – maybe more-so than the last. But open and with fine clarity – yum! – but give it some time. Excellent! A great finish.