2017 Pommard Epenots 1er Cru

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.

Etienne de Montille was attending the funeral of Henri Roch when I visited the domaine. Winemaker Brian Sieve took me through the comprehensive range that includes Domaine de Montille and Château de Puligny-Montrachet, and also their négociant arm, Maison de Montille. I will not say too much here, since Sieve kindly offered his thoughts in the form of a video that viewers can see in the Multimedia section. Suffice to say that he commenced the harvest on August 28 or 29 for the whites, a little rain falling on August 30 meaning some parcels were picked before those showers, and the reds were picked September 2–10. Among the reds, there are many delights, not least a divine Nuits Saint-George Aux Thorey, one to compare with Cathiard’s, perhaps, and I find commendable consistency across Volnay and Pommard, the heart of the range.

“This was the first time in ages that we had a normal harvest,” commented a patently relieved Anne Morey over the din of pneumatic drills. The winery was being equipped with a new lift, so that shifting barrels up and down will be less exhausting for the workers and less disturbing for the wines. Unfortunately, every time we engaged in conversation, the drilling began again. “It was also a good harvest for the reds, and I’m surprised by the volume,” she continued at a shout. “For the whites, the dryness reduced the levels of juice in the pulp, so it was not as generous. By the way, that is the opposite of 2018, when there is lots of juice. But the 2017s have good acidity and were very healthy. The reds were a bit trickier as we had to decide whether to bleed the tanks or not, since they did not have the concentration. But again, they have a good level of acidity and they are aromatically... regal!”

I am a big fan of this domaine’s wines and it is pleasing to see how Pierre Morey himself is now regarded as a legendary white winemaker, as attested by my regaling of his 1991 Meursault Les Perrières in Cellar Favorite. Anne Morey is an excellent winemaker, always chatty and animated in conversation down in her small barrel cellar. The 2017s consist mostly of domaine wines. The négociant side, labeled under Morey Blanc, was decimated by frost and hail in recent years. The reds were picked from September 2 and racked two or three weeks prior to my visit. They are pretty and very pure. I always have a soft spot for Morey’s Monthélie 1er Cru, which comes from Les Clous, though the vineyard is not written on the label. Of course, the main show is the whites, crowned by a profound Meursault Les Perrières and an excellent Village Cru in the shape of the Meursault Les Terres Blanches from vines just below La Goutte d’Or. There is a sense of honesty about Morey’s wines that I always admire. They sing true to where they come from. Quantities are small but they are well worth hunting down.

Though Rossignol’s new winery is located on the outskirts of Beaune, I continue associating this producer with Pommard, since Nicolas Rossignol has several holdings in this appellation, not to mention that his heart clearly lies here. He is garrulous, erudite and passionate when talking about wine, always armed with the insider’s gossip about what is really going on in Burgundy. More importantly, I rate him as a superb winemaker, and his wines have progressed since he relocated from the winery shared with his friend Benjamin Leroux.

“I started picking around September 5,” Rossignol told me. “Everything was perfect during the growing season. You just had to be careful about not leaving too many grapes in the vineyard and control the yields, so we took off some bunches. You can feel the terroirs in 2017. Generally, it will be a vintage that you can drink more quickly than others, except for a few wines like Les Epenots and Santenots. There is sweetness in these wines, though they are not heady. Here in this winery I have to manage 50 vats, but I never tired of tasting the 2017s, as the wines were so rich and deep, which was not the case in 2015.”

Now, this is a winemaker who deserves much higher status, and perhaps that is just a matter of time. Maybe if he had a couple of Grand Crus he would gain a higher profile. In the meantime, there are some absolute gems amongst his broad range of 2017s that focus on the Pommard-Volnay axis. Rossignol’s Pommard Les Epenots completely floored me with its precision and coiled-up energy; it is possibly the finest Pommard of the vintage. Les Chanlins, a lesser-known Pommard Premier Cru, had a propitious year and Rossignol’s comes highly recommended. Switching over to Volnay, two Premier Crus really stand out: Les Chevrets, Rossignol’s personal favourite, and also Les Fremiets. Most of Rossignol’s wines feel approachable and yet possess the substance to suggest they will mature nicely over the next couple of decades.

Winemaker Christine Gruere ran Dubreuil-Fontaine, in the heart of Pernand-Vergelesses, with her father until his passing in 2016. She is always an informative, refreshingly witty winemaker in conversation, though in recent years her wines have suffered with frost and hail damage. Fortunately, she has a full portfolio this year that covers both white and red crus, the former already bottled. “The 2017 vintage was pretty early and like the year before, on April 26 and 27 there was risk of frost,” she informed me in her tasting room. “Fortunately, we didn’t get any damage even though the temperature went down to –2° Celsius. Then summer was warm and dry. We started picking a couple of vineyards in the last days of August, though the real harvest started September 4 and continued over the next nine days. The grapes looked good, with fine sugar levels. Not much sorting was necessary. We have good volume, averaging around 50hl/ha. The wines have turned out well, the whites not as concentrated as 2016, which was so intense. It’s an easy, pleasant early-drinking vintage. The alcohol level for the white was around 12.5° and around 13.5° for the reds.” The domaine’s wines often represent great value. Like so many other growers in the locality, the Corton-Bressandes is probably the pick of the reds despite being racked the previous day. Also, I would not ignore the Aloxe-Corton 1er Cru or the Pommard Les Epenots. The 2017s are bound to drink well in their youth and I agree with Gruere that they will be best enjoyed over the next five to 10 years for the better Premier and Grand Crus.

Having discovered David Rebourgeon’s wines at the Grands Jours earlier this year, I resolved to visit the Pommard domaine for the first time to see how their 2017s are shaping up. Located in the heart of the village, it is a small winery but with surprisingly capacious underground cellars. “We began the harvest at the beginning of September and picked over the following week,” Rebourgeon told me. “The weather had been sunny, so we decided to go ahead. There had been no mildew during the year and the vines seemed well balanced, as we de-leafed in the summer to enhance aeration. We used a vibrating sorting table, though the fruit was healthy and showed no botrytis. So little sorting was needed. We will undertake a 14-month barrel maturation and bottle at the end of the year, using a medium toast and between 20% and 30% new oak.” This is a solid set of 2017s: nothing spectacular, but rather wines that adhere to a fresh and maybe easygoing style of Pommard that will drink sooner than their 2016s. I might pick out their Clos Micault, a lesser-known Premier Cru that shows good potential; likewise their Volnay Les Mitans.