2022 Volnay 1er Cru Les Brouillards, Domaine Violot-Guillemard

Today, as it enters its latest phase of development, the domaine stands at 8 hectares, spread across a remarkable 28 appellations! You don’t have to be a genius to work out that that averages out at less than a third of a hectare per appellation, which means an awful lot of very small cuvées. The big change that Joannès, Thierry’s son, has made is his move to extensive use of whole-bunch, although as he points out, his grandfather used to use 100% whole-bunch back in the day, so he’s only coming full circle. For this cuvee Les Fremiers, no new wood has been used. Fifty-year-old vines and 100% whole bunch are used for this Volnay 1er Cru Les Brouillards. This parcel used to be farmed by Bichot, who were also working organically, so when Joannés took it on the vines were in good shape. It borders Pommard and there is a fair bit of clay in the soil which provides plenty of structure and substance.