Tasted in Volnay with Sarah Glantenay, 19 October 2021.
Domaine Georges Glantenay & Fils
3 Rue de la Barre
21190 Volnay
Tel: +33 3 80 21 61 82
www.domaineglantenay.com
More reports for Domaine Georges Glantenay.
Sarah on 2021:
“A very small vintage in 2021 – only 40% of a normal vintage for us. Also 2020 is quite low – but a bit better than in 19. It’s really 2017 and 2018 that we last had comfortable yields”
Sarah on 2020:
The typicity of the vintage is that it started with plenty of rain in the winter – that’s just as well, as we already had quite a hot early season from March and the growing season never really lost that early start. Our first vines were harvested in August – 17th August. We will probably start bottling in February or March 2022 – we’d already done our whites at this stage last year but this year we think we may do them at the same time as the reds.
The wines…
The style here is dark and concentrated this year but also with grace from very fine acidity. I think this a great range in 2020.
Destemmed like all at this address – all barrel elevage but in this case, none are new.
Lots of colour. Pure dark fruit – quite forward too – that’s a super invitation for a Bourgogne. Hmm, freshness and density here – intensely finishing too. Full-flavoured, long finishing and a delicious wine – a small framing with tannin but you could already enjoy this today. I would say a great Bourgogne.
1.8 hectares worth from 9 different parcels – all below the 1er crus, 15-80 years old vines… The 3rd vintage where separated all the vines over 60 years old to the following cuvée.
A wider, more airy nose still with some depth of sweet fruit aroma. Lovely texture, depth to this flavour too – ooh – bravo. Ooh, the decadent pleasure here!
2020 Volnay Vieilles-Vignes
Grapes from 5 parcels included in this wine. Made since 2018, before it was blended into the previous wine – ‘It was easier to do that year as we had plenty of volume’ – 60-years-old and beyond for the vine age here vs 30-60-years-old for the previous wine.
A nose that has more density but also complexity. A different shape, a width of darker fruit – more intense, a slight salinity. A hint more structure and I’d certainly wait a little time for approaching – 2-3 years, perhaps. Excellent wine.
2020 Pommard
Just half a hectare but ‘good old vines.’
Hmm – dark fruit again but with an interesting and pure dark fruit. Hmm, structural but not hard, framed with some tannin but no grain at all. Growing and widening over the palate in the finish. A perfumed flavour and a seriously great, airy flavour in the finish.
2020 Volnay 1er Roncerets
Early harvesting area in the centre of Volnay – not much depth of soil and some drying of the grapes here in the last two vintages.
There’s an extra spice to the perfumed aroma here – you could think a little whole-cluster but there is none. Delicate, floral, complex, pure – slightly airy yet still a wine of structure that I would wait 3-5 years for – well, most of the bottles anyway 😉 Great finishing – almost haunting…
2020 Volnay 1er Santenots
0.4 hectares from Dessous
Good width – here is a more herbed complexity – slightly peppery – becoming sweeter and more accessible with aeration. Fuller, more finely divided complexity – that’s really very impressive – when I smelled this I was sure that would be liking the Roncerets more but here the combination of flavour freshness yet complexity is captivating. Super wine…
2020 Volnay 1er Les Brouillards
Here is plenty of forward, aromatic but smoky from a reduction, notes. Wide, fresh, sweeping, a faint grain of tannin but finishing with some beautifully acidulated and finely elegant finishing flavour.
First vintage for this was 2015. Deep, almost black soil in places.
Ooh – this has a lovely clarity of gorgeous dark fruit. Ooh, more Volnay style than the Brouillards that preceded it – beautifully textured with grainless tannin, accessible yet structural with no hard edges – such an elegant 1er cru – bravo!
From the higher part of Rugiens. 50% new oak but I hardly noted it in the note.
Plenty of aromatic volume – forward yet airy too – becoming more and more floral-perfumed. Really open, mouth filling yet airy and elegant too – texturally very sophisticated, gorgeously delicious. The finish is very long and only here will you note a faint announcement from the tannin. Gorgeous wine…
2020 Chambolle-Musigny
First vintage was 2003 but the vines came from grandmother’s side of the family – 3 different parcels.
Fresh, deep – broader in the base, less airy than the previous wines. A touch of gas – intense – ooh that’s a super, almost a sizzling line of flavour, partly mineral, heading towards the finish. Very impressive but so far I remain in the Volnay/Pommard camp here but more than the previous wines this needs more elevage.
2020 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Feuselottes
Vinified in a barrel – ‘vinification integrale’
The aroma reminds a little of whole-cluster, but again it’s not. Hmm – a wilder, more forward nose, almost tending to pyrazine. Mouthfilling but fresh and energetic too – that’s really impressively complex – I think a hint of pyrazine but at this level, it’s additive, it’s just a small extra complexity – and what complexity – that’s a super Chambolle 1er.
Les Whites:
2020 Bourgogne Aligoté
Foudre elevage – 1,200-litre
Ooh – that’s nice – a lovely clarity of aroma here. Wide, shimmering with energy, nicely clean. That’s a fine and tasty aligoté.
2020 Bourgogne Chardonnay
Again a nice vibration of aroma – here more of a width than depth – attractive and slightly agrume styled. Mouth-filling, mouth-watering – approaching juicy – not so slow-moving waves of tasty finishing flavour just accented today with a suggestion of reduction.
2020 Meursault
A calmer nose, faintly spiced. Some gas in here. Framed with fine tannin, some honey, golden fruit, again with some modest finishing reduction. A fuller wine that’s less energetic than the Bourgogne but delicious all the same. Lovely…
2020 Monthelie 1er Champs Fulliots
The last vineyard bought by parents in 2008 – was pinot but it’s high on the hill and stony so decided to replant a part to chardonnay and it was so good (in 2012) they replaced the rest with chardonnay too.
A little fresher, more purity, almost stony. Mouthfilling, lovely energy. Melting with a delicious flavour, slightly stony but remaining elegant. This is easily my favourite!