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Domaine Pierrick Bouley

There are two branches of the Bouley family in Volnay, Jean-Marc & Thomas Bouley and Réyane & Pascal Bouley. The former is slightly better known, though unfortunately my planned visit had to be cancelled after lockdown. Given the impressive quality of the 2019s that I tasted from the latter, it would not surprise me if Réyane & Pascal Bouley becomes one of Volnays most sought-after producers. The winery is located opposite the central church in the heart of the village. Young winemaker Pierrick Bouley escorted me down to their small cellar to taste their latest vintage. “I am the sixth generation,” he told me. “My grandfather Pierre Bouley married Odile Rossignol, the daughter of Jean Rossignol. Pierre’s son Pascal is the cousin of Jean-Marc Bouley. I have been at the domaine since 2009 and my first vintage alone was in 2014.” Given his excellent English I wasn’t surprised when he told me that he spent one month working at Felton Road.

I asked Bouley about his tenets towards winemaking. “It is very important to have very beautiful fruit - I am a vine grower rather than a winemaker. This year, 2020, is our first conversion to organic with certification hopefully in 2023. We haven’t been using chemicals or herbicides for maybe 20 years. There is very little ploughing in our nine hectares of vines that is comprised of 41 plots, the largest only 0.70 hectares. We have a lot of old vine stock with many parcels around 60-years-old. The oldest is almost a century old in Pommard. Since 2019 there is no rognage [hedging] to have no verjus and allow the sun to focus on bunches. There is no green harvesting. I prefer to have smaller yields and aim for early maturity. In 2019 we began the picking on 11 September. Everything is de-stemmed for all the cuvées. After a 2-3 weeks natural cuvaison we transfer into vats with no enzymes or yeast addition. We don’t use SO2 during the alcoholic fermentation, just during the racking and before bottling, only 50mg/l in total. The wines mature in barrel for 12 months, the malolactic usually at the end of the alcoholic fermentation. The cellar here is quite cold and I must have gas in barrels to conserve the wines without SO2. I used around 20-25% new oak across the range. The alcohol levels in 2019 were around 13.5°, the maximum 13.6° in the Volnay Clos des Chênes. After 12 months the wine is bottled at the end of October after a month in vat, with no filtration.”

I was first introduced to these wines at Les Grands Jours three years ago. I found them promising back then and I’m even more impressed by their range of 2019s. Think Michel Lafarge and you will know where I am coming from: Pinot Noir with great transparency, finesse, elegance and terroir expression. Much of this derives from their stock of naturally low-yielding old vines and Pierrick Bouley will admit that he does not have to do a great deal to obtain top quality wine. His hands-off approach is definitely the right way to go and without trying to sound banal, I just found nearly all these 2019s absolutely delicious, from their Bourgogne Passetoutgrains up to their Premier Crus. I concur with Bouley that the 2019s are a cut above their 2018s. The four that I tasted did not convey the same degree of elegance, felt almost chunky by comparison. Certainly, this is a producer that I would recommend in 2019 and I look forward to tasting again in the future.

From La Lumière Noire: 2019 Burgundy - Côte de Beaune (Dec 2020) by Neal Martin

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2019 Bourgogne Passetoutgrain Nature

Release Price: $33

Color: Red

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Domaine Pierrick Bouley

2019 Bourgogne Passetoutgrain Nature

2019 Bourgogne Passetoutgrain Classique

2019 Bourgogne Côte d’Or

2019 Monthélie Aux Fournereaux

2019 Monthélie Les Clous 1er Cru

2019 Volnay Village

2019 Volnay Les Pluchots

2019 Aloxe-Corton Village

2019 Pommard Village

2019 Volnay Robardelle 1er Cru

2019 Volnay Ronceret 1er Cru

2019 Volnay Les Grands Champs 1er Cru

2019 Volnay Santenots 1er Cru

2019 Volnay Champans 1er Cru

2019 Volnay Clos des Chênes 1er Cru

2019 Bourgogne Aligoté

2019 Chassagne-Montrachet Abbaye de Morgeot 1er Cru

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