Joseph Voillot Red Burgundies: Part 2 of 2: The Pommards

I discussed a little bit about Joseph Voillot and his Volnay wines in the last blog post.
Click here for that article.

Now we are talking about the Pommards.

Pommards are powerful in a uniquely Pinot Noir way not big or powerful in a Cabernet or Shiraz way. The common description given for this is ‘an iron fist in a velvet glove.’ That is good as far as it goes, but I think a better analogy is ‘power with elegance’ or ‘power under control.’ Put in your mind a luxury sports coupe like a Bentley or Aston Martin. True refined elegance – and 400 horsepower.

Okay on to the wines.

Joseph Voillot 2007 Pommard Vielles Vignes. $49.99 OH retail.
“With this wine you start to see a ‘house-style’ for Voillot because this wine shares many similarities to the Volnay Vielles Vignes. We have black fruits, gorgeous acidity, and aggressive raspberries on the nose. But this time the wine is a touch tight. This is totally our fault for opening it so young and 2 or 3 years will release a lot from this wine. Also, it is a very very long finish. More than minutes.”

Joseph Voillot 2007 Pommard 1er Cru ‘Clos Micault’ $84.99 OH Retail.
“This is where it all started for Voillot. The Clos Micault vineyard was purchased in 1870 and yields only 20 cases of wine. That is startling and humbling. 20 cases for the entire world! It is rich and warm and full of the most wonderful complex flavors. I’m not skilled enough in my palate to tell you everything I tasted. I just said, ‘yum’ and ‘wow’ and ‘whoa.” This was my favorite of the Pommards and I was horribly greedy. I wanted to buy all 20 cases of this wine just for me.”

Joseph Voillot 2007 Pommard 1er Cru ‘Pezerolles’ $84.99 OH Retail.
“Only 40 cases of wine were produced from this one acre vineyard. Positively abundant after the last wine. This wine was full of intense blue and black fruits, searing acid, and flower flavors. But all these flavors are compressed with the age one this wine. Lose it in the cellar for awhile. It was powerful with being forceful, like the best Pommards should be. A great wine for a collector and that doesn’t happen below $100 in Burgundy very often.”

I write this with the hope that Voillot’s wines will be something that people can find and discover for themselves. This is truly a value play in the heart of Burgundy’s expensive Cote D’Or. For those who lust for great Pinot Noir and who know that value isn’t about price, but instead what you get for each dollar, this is a producer you should experiment with.

Joseph Voillot Red Burgundies: Part 1 of 2: The Volnays

It has become a cliché that “French Burgundy is a minefield.” It is all too possible to spend upwards of one hundred dollars for shockingly ordinary stuff. But these are some of the most amazing Pinot Noirs – heck wines – on this planet.

It has become even more important to search out the producers that matter. And pray that they offer some sort of value. In Joseph Voillot, we have both insane quality and incredible value.

Voillot is in Volnay, the heart of the Cote d’Or, and wines are made both from Volnay and from Pommard. You couldn’t ask for more disparate interpretations of Pinot Noir. Volnay wines are from chalk and limestone soils, known for ethereal, feminine, elegance wines. Pommard wines are from iron and clay. The wines are masculine and powerful, but in a truly Pinot Noir way. More on those later.

I won’t talk much about the winemaker other than to say the Joseph Voillot’s son is doing it right. Sustainable agriculture. Microscopic yields. Minimal SO2. Minor amounts of oak. Five generations of winemaking have made sure that this property is exceptionally run.

Now to the wines. Keep in mind that these are very young and 2007 wasn’t a great year.

Joseph Voillot 2007 Bourgogne Rouge. $24.99 OH retail.
“Sourced from 50 year-old vines in Volnay, this is one of the sexiest cheap Burgundies I’ve ever had. The color is a wonderful shimmering red and bright aromas leap from the glass. You don’t have to go looking for them. This wine, at this price, deserves to frequent your dinner table. Especially with poultry.”

Joseph Voillot 2007 Volnay Vielles Vignes. $51.99 OH Retail.
“This includes some 1er Cru and non-1er Cru juice from nine parcels. It is textbook Volnay without any specific expression of micro-terroir. Better than most $50 Pinot Noirs, but next come the premier crus.”

Joseph Voillot 2007 Volnay 1er Cru ‘Le Champans’ $51.99 OH Retail.
“My favorite of the Volnays comes from the 4 acre ‘les Champans’ vineyards. The vines here date back to 1934. The wine is spicy and complex and elegant and sexy all in one. Think about any of the Italian beauties that graced Frederico Fellini films and you get a personification of this wine.”

Joseph Voillot 2007 Volnay 1er Cru ‘Les Fremiets’ $51.99 OH Retail.
“To anyone who says terroir doesn’t exist, I give them the ‘les Fremiets’ vineyard. On the border of Volnay and Pommard, a little of the Pommard clay seeps into the ground of this vineyard. This gives the style and noticeable ‘drop’ of Pommard fullness. Fifty year-old vines and tight yields make this a wine for the cellar. I’d love to taste this again in a decade.”

The Pommards will be in the next blog post.

Eral Bravo Wine Maker Matias Sanchez-Nieto - Understanding Wine Ep.3

A visit from Mathias Sanchez-Nieto of Eral Bravo Winery in Argentine where he talks about his wines.

Visit Eral Bravo at http://www.eralbravo.com/

10 Wine Resolutions for 2010

Wine Resolutions for Novices.

1. UNDERSTAND that is it too early in your wine journey to start making decisions about grapes, brands, or regions. This is life quest; you don’t want to start making preferences until you have a couple hundred bottles consumed.

2. DO attend a wine tasting on a regular basis. This is by far the most cost-effective way to get experience lots of wines.

3. BUY an expensive leather journal and write down every wine you taste and what you think about it. This forces you to be focused and it will be fun to read in future years.

Wine Resolutions for Intermediates.

4. UNDERSTAND wine and food pairings. Most wine (and all great wine) is meant for the dinner table. A little experimentation and one good wine book can help you in this mission.

5. DO try as many different grapes as possible. Consider something like the ‘Wine Century Club.’ Don’t restrict yourself to the most common 10 or 20 grapes. Thousands of grape types are made into wine worldwide.

6. BUY cases of interesting wine. It is time to learn how wine ages and what that really means. You are only going to do that if the wine is aging at your house.

Wine Resolutions for Advanced Wine Drinkers.

7. UNDERSTAND that analysis is lowest form of wine appreciation. Embrace the metaphysical connections of terroir (the fusion of place and taste) and learn about the people making your wine.

8. DO visit wine country and go where the tourists don’t go. Santa Barbara, Greece, Southwest France, etc…

9. BUY strangely interesting wines that nobodies else knows about to defend their existence from homogenization.

Wine Resolution for Everyone.

10. BE GRATEFUL. We have access to more wine, better wine, and in more diversity that most people on earth.