It is not easy to find great Pommard and Volnay. Certainly the wines of d’Angerville, Lafarge and de Montille are exceptional but so are those being made by Jean-Pierre Charlot of Domaine Joseph Voillot. He is a wonderful man producing incredible wines from great vineyards which should be in every Burgundy lover’s cellar.
In the spring, a team of us descended into Jean-Pierre’s extraordinarily atmospheric cellar. With barrels piled high and bottles covered in mould, it was a very tight fit not only for the wine maker who is Falstaffian in girth, but also for one other of our team, the mighty Tim Hoare.
Two hours later, we resurfaced having had the most outstanding tasting of young and old wines. The young wines were superb but the revelation were wines from the 70s, 60s and 40s. The 1978 Champans was a glory while the 1969 was lovely but just past its peak. The 1964 was outstanding (and the second time I have had the chance to taste this marvel) and finally the 1947 was older than all of us but had aged far better.
It was a great tasting laid on by an outstanding wine maker and hugely generous man. It is only recently that he has given up his summer picnic when friends and friends of friends descended on Volnay to drink old wines. At the last picnic, 350 bottles of mature wine were consumed which was just too much even for a man of Jean-Pierre’s kindness.
Stylistically, both the Volnays and more surprisingly the Pommards have a silkiness about them that makes them immediately appealing. They don’t need years of ageing, like the wines of some of the other great growers of the Côte de Beaune, before you can start to enjoy them. But they still will last incredibly well.
We have a few of these wonderful wines onstock – click here for details.