2012 Volnay Caillerets 1er Cru

Rossignol bought a lot of new barrels in 2011 and thus used no new oak at all in 2012, aging his wines instead in one-, two- and three-year-old barrels. He describes the 2012s as "thick wines, but not in the sense of the 2003s. They should be true agers as the north wind in September brought more maturity, density and concentration." Rossignol had not racked his wines in early November, and most of them had not been sulfited for several months at the time of my visit. "The wines need a lot of time to make themselves," he told me. "With their thickness they need more elevage to refine themselves. A later bottling will be important."Rossignol was one of several vignerons in Burgundy to describe the Cote de Nuits wines of 2012 as elegant, silky and delicate, while the Cote de Beaune wines are superconcentrated, intense and thick, adding that "it's normally the opposite." He believes that the hail on the Cote de Beaune was ultimately beneficial, as it cut yields and brought greater concentration. "When we taste the 2012s in ten years, we'll forget the difficult vintage conditions of the season." (A Becky Wasserman Selection; importers include Pas Mal Selections, www.selectionpasmal.wordpress.com and Favorite Brands, www.favoritebrands.org)