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Domaine Joseph Voillot

The wines from this Volnay domaine have not been reviewed in Vinous for a number of years, so it’s time to rectify that. I have followed Voillot from my earliest days, preceding my foray into writing. Winemaker Jean-Pierre Charlot is the son-in-law of Joseph Voillot, who I met shortly before he passed away in 2014. Jean-Pierre began working at the domaine in 1980 and took over its running in 1995 when Voillot retired. Charlot is a true Burgundy winemaker, the proverbial French paysan, someone who has dedicated his life to making wine, not the seeking the limelight. Consequently, he is not as well known as others; however, in Burgundy he is a highly regarded winemaker who has taken many budding young vignerons under his wing, teaching at the viticultural school in Beaune and dispensing his knowledge to students, some becoming more famous than himself. Charlot is what you might call a rotund gentleman, with a deep gravelly voice and a propensity to look miserable in photos when he is nothing like that in real life. Recently, though, he has perhaps had cause to be gloomy. The succession of frost and hail hit this domaine hard, since nearly all their holdings cluster around Pommard and Volnay. I have called on Charlot when he has been depressed about that misfortune, which meant that he had to let workers go and struggled to underwrite the cost of new barrels. To put figures on that, whereas in 2009 he produced 200 barrels, the domaine never made more than 143 barrels until this year; the nadir was just 71 barrels in 2016. But he is made of strong stuff and relief has come in the form of two abundant vintages in 2017 and 2018, along with the helping hand of Etienne Chaix, his nephew, who is being trained to take over when Charlot hangs up his secateurs.

“The weather was superb for the vines,” Charlot told me. “You had to be vigilant about the pH levels, otherwise you risked brettanomyces and volatile acidity and so on. In the end, the pH came in at around 3.3. We began the picking on September 6 [compared to September 22 the previous year.] In 2017, if you waited too long, then the alcohol would just shoot up. We picked at around 50hl/ha, although it would have been possible to have 60 to 70hl/ha. Everything was de-stemmed and fermentation was around 32 to 33° Celsius, slightly lower than other growers. We produced 210 barrels in total, the most since 2009, and there are 203 barrels in 2018.”

These are traditionally made wines that are never big, powerful and burly like their winemaker. Don’t be fooled – they require time. They gain some girth with age, filling out and manifesting more structure. The highlight in 2017 is the Pommard Les Pezerolles, often one of the strongest cards that Charlot plays, closely followed by a vivacious Pommard Les Rugiens. Indeed, I slightly prefer the Pommards to the Volnays, though the Les Champans and Les Fremiets have great potential. They might well be more approachable than the 2015 or 2016s, but to repeat my earlier message, they really come into their own between 10 and 20 years.

From 2017 Burgundy: A Modern Classic (Jan 2019) by Neal Martin

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2017 Bourgogne Rouge

Color: Red

2017 Bourgogne Rouge

2017 Meursault Les Cras 1er Cru

2017 Meursault Les Chevalières

2017 Pommard Clos Micault 1er Cru

2017 Pommard Les Epenots 1er Cru

2017 Pommard Les Pezerolles 1er Cru

2017 Pommard Les Rugiens 1er Cru

2017 Pommard Village

2017 Volnay Les Caillerets 1er Cru

2017 Volnay Les Champans 1er Cru

2017 Volnay Les Fremiets 1er Cru

2017 Volnay Village

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