VOLNAY

2011 1er Cru Chevrets Domaine Nicolas Rossignol

EN PRIMEUR

Two cuves, Nicolas' uncle's vines. picked a week later (because they needed the extra time) and 100% destemmed. Juicy, large open and easy, lacks a little punch on the finish. Nicolas' own vines were fermented 100% as whole bunches. There's much more to this. Volume and richness, dark expression. Sweet damsons again.L&S (Dec 2012)

* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.

(bottled in March of 2013; vinified with 50% whole clusters): Palish red. Musky aromas of red berries, spices and underbrush. Dense, silky and light on its feet, with lovely inner-mouth floral lift to its subtly intense red fruit and earth flavors. Nicely saturates the mouth without leaving any impression of weight. The 2011s make you salivate, says Rossignol, who believes that they combine the generosity of 2010 with the freshness of 2008. Rating: 92 Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar (Mar 2014)

A ripe, pure and alluringly elegant nose features notes of various red orchard fruit aromas that include cherry, apple and plum that slide gracefully into relatively generous and solidly well-concentrated flavors that retain a good sense of tension and precision. There is good ripeness to the supporting tannins that coat the mouth on the wonderfully intense, balanced and enticingly complex finish. Good stuff here. 2019+ Rating: 91 Allen Meadows, www.Burghound.com (Apr 2013)

(a blend of his father's and uncle's fruit, the former vinified entirely with whole clusters and the latter destemmed): Medium red. Redcurrant, iron and flowers on the nose. Supple and perfumed in the mouth, delivering good thickness of texture without undue weight. A juicy cranberry flavor is further lifted on the back by good mineral cut. Lovely perfumed Volnay with excellent intensity and length. Rating: 91-93 Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar (Feb 2013)

The origin of the name comes from the Latin for a hollow, but that wouldn’t apply to the style of this wine, which is sexy, sweet and attractive, with succulent fruit and good structure. 2015-21 Rating: 94 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (Jan 2013)

Mid slope. Pebbly. Between Champans and Santenots and only three others make it. Quite deep crimson. Lively and fresh and lighter – and actually more angular – than the Clos des Angles. Racy. Transparent. 2017-2027 Rating: 16.5 Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Jan 2013)

This is velvet and silky; full and juicy. Deep and rich and satin. Good balance of clay and rock. Creamy, layered and intense. Usually 50% whole bunches, but this year 100%. The terroir need this. Satin tannins, black satin and cream. Sensual finish. Typical Volnay Fine+ From 2015. Rating: 18.25 Sarah Marsh MW, The Burgundy Briefing (Nov 2012)

Born in 1974, Nicolas represents the fifth generation of his family in Volnay (a village which seems to be populated almost entirely by families with Rossignol somewhere in the name). He started to make the wines of his 'Rossignol-Jeanniard' family domaine when he was just twenty.

After studies at the Lycée viticole in Beaune, he worked with Joseph Voillot in Volnay, who became a mentor to him, for Louis Latour at their estate in the Ardèche, and for Vieux Télégraphe on Châteauneuf, where he loved the combination of richness and elegance in the wines, which influenced the style of wines he would later want to make himself. He also made wine in Boschendal in South Africa, and for Château la Cardonne in Bordeaux (then managed by the Lafite team).

In 1997, Nico started his own domaine with three hectares of vines inherited from an uncle. After a period in which some of the wines he made were labelled 'Domaine Rossignol-Jeanniard', and some 'Domaine Nicolas Rossignol', he began to buy the fruit from his (Rossignol-Jeanniard) family, and label these simply 'Nicolas Rossignol' (without the 'domaine'). Now the vines (all 16 hectares) are finally in the 'Domaine Nicolas Rossignol', and labelled as such. To handle this sizeable domaine, Nico needed a new winery. Having started with a chaotic assemblage of tanks in a building in the village of Volnay, he had moved to share Ben Leroux's winery on the Beaune ring road, but Nico had dreams of his own place and built his impressive new winery in 2016. A fantastic bespoke build, admittedly in a ZI (Zone Industrielle) on the outskirts of Beaune, which he recognises is not ideal for the 'folklore' aspect, it is a perfect tool for the job, and does have a good view of all 'his' bits of the Côte - from a sort of eyrie on the roof.

Like many Burgundy domaines, the appellations have proliferated as the surface area of the vineyard has increased with lots of little (and some quite large) parcels of vines in Aloxe ('village'), Savigny ('village' and two Premiers Crus), Beaune (three Premiers Crus), Pernand ('village' and one Premier Cru), Pommard (three 'village' wines and six Premiers Crus) and Volnay ('village' and seven Premiers Crus). With two cuvées of Bourgogne Rouge, this adds up to twenty-eight different wines. Like Burgundy more generally, the joy of tasting here is recognising the individual character of each plot, modulated by the conditions of the vintage, of course, but each with their own distinct personality

The viticulture of the domaine is inspired by biodynamics, but Nico is pragmatic, and although no weedkillers are used and the vineyards are maintained by ploughing, he says that there are both good and bad things in biodynamics, and he will use conventional fungicides to combat disease. At harvest time the grapes are picked into eight kilo boxes, and transported to the winery in them to minimise handling. They are then carefully sorted, before either being de-stemmed (but with the berries left intact) before being put in the fermentation vat, or put in directly as whole bunches. Nico uses varying proportions of whole bunch fermentation depending on the type of wine each vineyard gives, and of course on the health and 'ripeness' of the stems. A classic fermentation using the natural yeats on the grapes ensues, with punchdowns (pigeage) and pumpovers (remontage) used to extract flavour from the grapes, or to oxygenate the wine and refine its structure - the amount used judged by tastings throughout the process. After the vatting the free-run juice is separated from the pressed juice - the latter being blended back as required if necessary after tasting. The wine is put into barrel by gravity (with the amount of new wood between 0 and 50%), and aged for between ten and twenty months depending on the wine and the vintage, always on the lees without racking. The wood and the amount of heat used in making the barrels is also modulated for each wine. The malolactic fermentation is delayed for six months to increase aromatic complexity and structure to the wines. At the end of the ageing the wines are racked and blended in tank, before bottling without fining or filtration.

Nicolas makes deeply-coloured, flavourful wines. He is always keen to rubbish the generalisation that Pommard makes structured 'masculine' wines, as opposed to Volnay's supposedly 'feminine' ones, and proves his point with Pommards grown on clay and Volnays like his punchily structured 'Ronceret'. Each wine is very site-specific.

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