TN - '05 Rossignol Volnay Chevrets

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Kevin Harvey

Kevin Harvey
This Volnay makes me wonder if Pommard is currently the the most under-estimated Village in Burgundy.

'05 Rossignol Volnay Chevrets-
Roses, iron, game and other complex non-fruit things on the nose. Plump and somewhat meaty black fruit on the palate with good refinement. The "sauvage" meatiness and intense black fruit really reminds me of Pommard. Overall, this is excellent concentrated, quite pure and youthfully delicious. It may mature in 20+ years but is very attractive today.

Drinking this made me think about the relative modern reputations of Pommard and Volnay. IMO, there are vineyards in each commune that offer the expected characteristics of the other. In other words, their are meaty and "Pommardish" Volnays and refined, floral, minerally Pommards. The individual vineyards seem to be more indicative of these characteristics than the communes.
 
Kevin -- I'd like to hear more examples from you about the differences between Volnay and Pommard, because for me they are very different, even though (1) what the books say about the two is mostly rubbish, and (2) each commune is very complex with quite a bit of variability.

Although I've tasted at Rossignol-Trapet for the last few years with Nicolas Rossignol, I've yet to visit his estate in Volnay and I confess that I don't have much experience with his Volnays here, but my overall impression from what I have tasted is that for Volnay it is winemaking effacing terroir.
 
Claude,
I find large enough differences between vineyards in the communes that the generalities just seem overly general. Overall, I would say that more Volnays taste Pommardish to me than the other way around. Of course, there are no Pommard equivalents to Clos des Ducs, better Caillerets etc but these are a small minority of Volnays. To be clear I do not feel like I have definitively studied the topic at all, and these are just my incomplete impressions. A recent blind tasting really brought it to mind.

On Nicolas Rossignol, I would encourage you to spend more time with his wines. I found this to be concentrated (but not extracted), quite pure (low oaked) and very transparent to the vineyard.
 
Kevin -- We'll just have to sit down with a bunch of wines or, better, visit some cellars together, because even when Volnay is hard, as at Pitures, Frmiets, Taillepieds, etc. or Pommard is not so hard, e.g., Epenots, Pzerolles, etc., there are major differences to me. Take, for instance, the Taillepieds from de Montille in comparison to his Pommards or the Clos des Chnes of Lafarge in comparison to his Pzerolles, to choose two of the harder Volnays around in comparison with less hard Pommards. Rossignol is on my list of people to see in Volnay, but so far from what I have tasted, there has been too much extraction and oak for my palate -- and it may just be a difference between your preferences and mine.
 
Claude,
That sounds like fun. I would be interested to hear your description of the general characteristics of the two.
For me, Pezerolles is a very elegant and mineral wine.

FWIW on Rossignol, I found no wood at all and I am quite sensitive to this in Volnay but I can imagine someone feeling that it was extracted.
 
Kevin -- Fruit is very different between Volnay and Pommard -- darker in Pommard, red in Volnay; textures are also quite different, richer and heavier in Pommard, lighter and more airy in Volnay. Volnay is the cooler climate and it comes through in the wines. It's even evident if you compare the wines on the border, Pommard-Chanlins, Jarollires, and Fremiers with Volnay Chanlins and Frmiets.
 
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