Jean Vaudoisey - Volnay les Grands Champs 2021

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2021 Volnay Grands Champs: On the limit of the grand cru part of grand champs. Wide, a more intense beam of fine red fruit. Structural but never hard, just interesting. More clarity of fruit and a bit more muscle. Again deliciously finishing.

Romain on 2021: “As noted, 2021 was just half a harvest. The wines are still in barrel and will be racked soon – I don’t think the wines will need long ageing so I’ll be bottling begore the end of the year. We didn’t have a lot of grapes but we didn’t hesitate to trie hard! It’s the third small vintage in a row, so we have nothing left to sell at the domaine ” -- Bill Nanson, Burgundy Report

Jean Vaudoisey Description

Volnay wine is produced in the commune of Volnay in Côte de Beaune of Burgundy, and in some vineyards in the commune of Meursault. The Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) Volnay is only used for red wine with pinot noir as the main grape variety. There are no Grand Cru vineyards within Volnay, but several highly regarded Premier Cru vineyards. The AOC was created in 1937 (87 years ago).

In 2008, there were 206.7 hectares (511 acres) of vineyard surface was in production for Volnay wine at village and Premier Cru level, and 7,733 hectoliter of wine was produced, corresponding to just over 1 million bottles.

The AOC regulations also allow up to 15% total of chardonnay, pinot blanc and pinot gris as accessory grapes in the red wines, but this not very often practiced. The allowed base yield is 40 hectoliter per hectare. The grapes must reach a maturity of at least 10.5% potential alcohol for village-level wine, and 11.0% for Premier Cru wine.

The style of Volnay wine is typically light and aromatic, and elegant rather than powerful, with considerably less tannin than the Pommard wines from the neighboring village.

Romain Poirrotte is the new, super-fresh face of this old Volnay domaine. Jean Vaudoisey is Romain’s grandfather and Romain, the 6th generation of this side of the family (since 1806) has taken on this 7 hectare family domaine from the 2015 vintage onward...Romain’s 7 hectares, include regional wines, Volnay, Volnay 1er Cru, Pommard, and a little Meursault too; Meursault that’s sited next to Santenots close to Meursault’s camping place.

Romain explains that he’s often worked with his grandfather and thought it fitting that the domaine stays with his name – Jean Vaudoisey. Triage is in the vines and again afterwards at the domaine, then all destemmed. Romain said the first thing he did was to buy a new pneumatic press, as it was sure to make a big difference! Romain hopes some of the former clientele of his grandfather will remain, but expects it won’t be so difficult to sell his wines. -- Bill Nanson, Burgundy Report