2018 Volnay Village

Located in the shadow of the church that lies in the center of Volnay village, Domaine Joseph Voillot has been the mainstay of what might be described as "traditional" winemaking practices for many years. Jean-Pierre Charlot is a winemaker whose acquaintance I have enjoyed long before I even began writing, respected by his peers as a "vrai vigneron". However, he has had it tough in recent years. Apart from his vines almost exclusively in Volnay and Pommard lying within the direct firing line of late spring frosts, he has endured his own bout of ill health. So it was good to see him back on form and now he has the assistance of his nephew Etienne Chaix, who guided me through the first half the tasting before his uncle made it back from a delivery. “I think these wines have good potential," Charlot explained. "In my opinion, the 2018s have more depth than the 2017s. We started the harvest on 30 August [the third time they have started this month after 2003 and 2011] and picked over six days until 5 September. There was a storm around 18 to 20 August that I think added flesh to the berries [what the French call "gonflanté", though I find the direct English translation "inflated" a bit pejorative.]" As usual, Charlot gave me an insightful list of production figures each cuvée that can be juxtaposed with previous figures of the last ten vintages. So for example, in 2018 the Domaine produced a total of 203 barrels compared to 210 in 2017. One cannot overstate the importance of these figures since depleted vintages between 2010 and 2016, when just 71 barrels were eked out from the fines, left Charlot questioning their chances of survival.