2010 Volnay Les Fremiets 1er Cru

Henri Boillot turned out a superb set of 2010 reds. Best of all, readers won't have to shell out a fortune to enjoy them, as a number of the more modestly priced wines far exceed the quality of their respective appellations. Yields came in at 20-22 hectoliters per hectare, a 40% decrease over the more typical production of 35 hectoliters per hectare. Boillot began harvesting on September 29 and ended on October 7, among the latest, if not the latest, to finish picking. Fermentations lasted about 29 days on average. Boillot has augmented his holdings with 5 hectares of vineyards that came online in 2010. I tasted all of these wines at Boillot's cellars in Volnay. Boillot told me he plans to have his new facility in the Champ Lins section of Meursault fully operational for both whites and reds by summer 2012.

Boillot was already excited about the 2010 vintage when I visited him in November of that year to taste '09s and '08s, and he's even higher on the vintage today. "It's one of the best red wine vintages I've made in years, a true definition of pinot noir," he told me. "The wines will age on their pHs and noble tannins. They remind me of the 1991s after the 1990s. We had a lot of different climatic conditions, but they were all necessary to produce a palate of aromas and a definition that we have rarely seen." "Like the 2002s?" I ask him. "The north wind concentrated the acids and tannins in '02," he responded. "So those wines are a bit harder." Boillot was a late picker in 2010 (conversely, he was one of the first to harvest in 2009), bringing in his grapes between September 29 and October 4 with potential alcohol in the 12.8% range. Yields were between 22 and 26 hectoliters per hectare, and the wines were not chaptalized. He did one less punchdown per cuvee than usual, and noted that the vinification and extraction were relatively easy. (Numerous importers, including Massenois Imports, Washington, D.C., Chelsea Ventures, Kenilworth, IL; and Milton Road Trading Company, Napa, CA)