Best producers?
Best vineyards ?
Is it d´Angerville - or Montille, Lafarge or Pousse d´Or - or Boillot — Leroy? Others?
Clos de Ducs ? Clos des Chenes, Caillerets, Champans, 60 Oeuvrees …
or Santenots?
Please mention at least 3 different wines …
I think most people would include Lafarge on the short list, and a 98 village Volnay “Vendage Selection” I had on Thursday certain substantiated that view. Really outstanding, and this was a village wine from a vintage that was not outstanding.
I concur with Lafarge being on the short list, and especially if you have met the family at the domaine: super friendly, accessible, down to earth people. When you visit, you can really feel the history and how burgundy runs in their blood. This makes tasting their wines even more special in my view.
Another vote for Lafarge.
Great wines and better people.
Another vote here for Lafarge! With d’Angerville a very close second.
What’s the top vineyard? Clos des Chenes or Clos de Ducs?
if the question is best producers, you have already noted really good ones. Voillot should be mentioned as well. I have equal amounts of Voillot / d’Angerville / Lafarge hanging around at home. Lyle Fass also sells from producers that could be fine as well (i think it is Bouley?)
as much as i love the Lafarge wines, the style is quite different than say de Montille / d’Angerville etc. I believe they are all excellent producers, and you find your style. or enjoy all of them…
Same goes for vineyards, as they lend themselves to different expressions of pinot noir. some hold Ducs as top dog in the pantheon, bit I prefer Chênes / Taillepieds / Champans as my faves.
Pousse d’Or wines in the 1980s up to 1996 are magical. I don’t know much about them since that time.
have fun discovering…
You seem to have named most of them. What preferences do you have?
Love Volnay. Lafarge is my favorite–and one of my favorite producers on earth, period–but Montille, d’Angerville, and Jean-Marc Bouley aren’t far behind. Pousse’s 60 Ouvrees may be the best value in the area. J-M Bouley’s Chenes is magical, although has quickly crept up in price.
It’s hard to separate vineyards from producers, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Taillepieds. Seems to do well across producers–especially Montille and d’Angerville. Caillerets and Chenes also are very strong across the board.
Blain Gagnard’s Volnay is great after 10 years, very subtle, really what you’d expect from this AOC.
Alain
There are a lot of really good Volnay producers. I like Volnay a lot. In addition to a lot of the ones listed above, I would have to include Lafon as a top producer. Then, I like the Volnay Caillerets Cuvee Carnots from Bouchard a lot. Pousse d’Or is an excellent producer, although probably not as good as when Potel was alive.
And, for value, try the Volnays from Dublere. Blair’s Taillepieds can be half the price of that from more famous producers.
The best now to me with their top end cuvee…
Lafarge Clos des Chenes
Angerville Clos des Ducs
Then
Pousse d’Or 60 ouvrees and Bousse d’Or
Rossignol Caillerets
de Montille Taillepieds
Lafon Santenots
JM Bouley Chenes (only had this one time however. terrific.)
Lafarge is at the top of the tree for me. Last night a humble 1993 Vendanges Sélectionées showed beautifully, so pure and vibrant.
The d’Angerville wines are good but a bit marked by high percentages of Taransaud, which makes quite an aromatic (clove, orange rind, vanilla) and textural (tannin) impact.
The Pousse d’Or wines are getting better but the wheel has been reinvented there and they don’t really have anything to do with the Potel-era bottlings. A pity because of Clos des 60 Ouvrées has to be one of the best terroirs in the Côte de Beaune.
In terms of rising stars, Thierry Glantenay has been quietly improving for a while and everything came together magically in 2015, wines not to miss - and lovely appellations too: Caillerets, Clos de Chenes, Santenots (plus a fine Pommard Rugiens). The Champans from Monthélie-Douhairet-Porcheret is getting quite serious in Cataldina’s hands too. The same should be said of the Buisson-Charles Santenots.
It would be remiss not to observe that Nicolas Rossignol is making some terrific Volnays, his 2015s being especially strong. From an old Volnay family but his new cellars are off the Beaune ring road.
And I’d second the nomination of Voillot - lovely wines in quite a generous, sensual style, clearly differentiated by site.
As far as vineyards go, the generalizations about Volnay being ‘feminine’ and elegant do have a lot of truth to them (no major air draining in the commune to thicken skins, soils often quite shallow and calcerous), vineyards like Champans, Taillepieds and Santenots can produce very ample, structural wines with quite wild characteristics and a serious chassis of tannin, so (as always in Burgundy) it gets a bit more complicated the more narrowly one focusses.
My top 3
D’angerville (ducs, champans)
Rossignol (Chevret, Caillerets)
Lafarge (Chenes)
How does Santenots rank? Just got some 2007 from Faiveley at an auction too cheap to pass up, but haven’t tried them yet.
It is a large and quite varied vineyard, generally producing one of the most firmly-structured, powerful and long-lived wines of the village. Its historical reputation is very high but I would venture that it is quite easy to find disappointing renditions today. I guess the Lafon example is the most famous but it can be hit and miss (often hard and very extracted), the best I’ve had was the '93.
I would look at Henri Boillot, Buisson-Charles, Nicolas Rossignol and Pierre Morey’s examples. In 2015 Glantenay’s was, by his own admission, picked a bit late; but that looks like a bottling to follow too going forward.
Thanks! I haven’t had a lot of red from southern Cote de Beaune so I think I’ll have to just open one and see if I like the style. Can’t be THAT angular and firm after ten years…
A Faiveley?
Do report back.
Famous last words…
In any particular order:
d’Angerville (Caillerets and Champans - prefer it to the Ducs)
Lafarge (Clos des Chenes)
Leroy (Santenots)
Boillot (Carelle (sous la Chapelle))
de Montille (Champans)
(old) Pousse d´Or (60 Ouvrées)
Kristoffer–your … may give you away, but the serious Volnays can take quite a while to come around (many of the 99’s aren’t “ready”), and can age for years.
I would throw a vote in for d’angerville Taillpieds becoming one of the best vineyards, perhaps with climate change, over this past 20 years.