“The 2015 Pommard 1er Cru les Saucilles is nearly entirely whole bunch fruit this year. It has a lifted boysenberry and cranberry bouquet, a touch of licorice developing with time. The palate is medium-bodied with a smooth, harmonious entry. Here it diverts more towards red fruit laced with white pepper, struck through with a fine line of acidity and bracing sense of energy towards the pastille-like finish. This is one of my picks from Glantenay this year and it comes highly recommended. Drink: 2018-2028. 91-93 points
Whenever I hear of the travails endured by producers in Volnay, the two growers that my heart goes out to are Jean-Pierre Charlot at Domaine Joseph Voillot and Thierry Glantenay. Both produce excellent wines, both are true gentleman and both, amongst others, seem to stand right in the firing line whenever there is a sudden hailstorm or frost. Still, this does not seem to have prevented Thierry from improving his winery, which now has an extension to accommodate 50,000 bottles, necessary because his grandfather’s house that used to house part of the production has been sold. This clearly gives him and his father plenty more space to conduct their work, allowing them to work by gravity and eschew the use of pumps, and also provided a huge balcony that gives an amazing panorama across towards the Jura Mountains. Thierry told me that he commenced the harvest on 2 September and cropped at 25hl/ha due to hail. Acidity levels came in with pH level between 3.5 and 3.6. There is lot of whole bunch used at this domaine except for the Broullard at around 30% of the crop. The whites were in vat, soon to be fined and bottled in December or January. He described them as wines with the generosity of the 2009 vintage but with better acidity. This was a fine set of wines from Thierry, perhaps in a couple of places a little rustic and “big-boned” but displaying assiduous use of whole bunches and really delivering with gems like the “saucy” Pommard Les Saucilles and Volnay Clos des Chênes.”
“Domaine Jean Javillier & Fils is the sort of estate that this wine critic dreams of discovering. Hiding in plain site equidistant between the premises of Coche-Dury and Roulot, this small domaine—producing a mere 20,000 bottles per year—does everything the old fashioned way. Farming vineyards that have never seen chemicals and which have been certified organic since 1971, Alain Javillier favors massal selections: “We tried clones in the past, but they are not as good; I’m only going to let you taste wines made from massal selections.” Reds and whites alike are harvested in small crates, with whites pressed in an old Vaslin mechanical press. The musts are chilled to 15 degrees Celsius, and Alain tastes the lees when barreling down. Twelve months maturation in barrel and four in tank ensue, followed by bottling by hand, by gravity. Reds, by contrast, ferment without temperature control, and only free-run juice is used. The result is chewy, structured whites with plenty of texture and dry extract and sumptuous, supple and exquisitely elegant reds. “Some people tell me I make red wine for girls,” Javillier remarks. The inspiration here is sound: the white and red Burgundies of the 1940s. How much longer can such methods endure? “Now everyone works faster and faster, we have more and more Chardonnay, less and less Meursault,” Javillier poignantly observes. Indeed, so unspoiled is this domaine, I hesitated to write about it. But any readers nostalgic for the wines of yesteryear, before the stylistic excesses of the 1990s and the subsequent reaction against them, will find them at this address.”
“The 2020 Pommard Les Vignots has a lively, minty bouquet that is well defined, quite floral with iris flowers emerging with time. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins, quite structured with a vibrant saline finish that lingers. This must be the I’dark horse” of Monnot’s range. Drinking window: 2024-2045. 91-93 points
Xavier Monnot told me, “I love this vintage” when I visited him in Meursault. He picked from August 20 and finished on August 29. I really admired his 2020 Chassagne-Montrachet En Remilly with its cheeky touch of Japanese shiso leaf on the finish. The reds were de-stemmed and quite opulent in style; the Pommard Les Vignots and Volnay Clos des Chênes are well worth seeking out. These wines are bottled under natural cork.”
