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Though many of our offers are of the standalone, single-wine variety, today's inaugurates a sustained push for a producer whose wines offer such exceptional quality and value that, well, you'll be hearing more about them. These are the wines of Guillaume and Sarah Glantenay of Domaine Georges Glantenay, and a recently-landed parcel has given us a choice opportunity to share some actual wine along with our enthusiasm.
The brother and sister team, the third generation to domaine-bottle, vinified their first vintage in 2014. Their domaine holdings total a tidy 8 hectares, almost exclusively Volnay, and is blessed with a high proportion of old, massale-selection vines. Guillaume picks notably early and retains a small percentage of stems for the premiers crus, though none for the entry-level and villages.
Pursuit of finesse and elegance guide viticulture and vinification. When these two priorities are achieved, it is believed, an unforced transparency necessarily results. There are no punch downs, as Guillaume prefers infusion to extraction; as a family, the wines are above all marked by an ultra-fine mouthfeel.
In the firmament of up-and-comers, Guillaume's wines strike me as somehow more serious, i.e. not of the exuberantly expressive, whole-cluster variety now so much in vogue. They express a quieter, often more brooding mood, and require some time in the glass (or bottle) to fully blossom. 'Tradition-meets-innovation' is so trite a descriptor it risks uselessness, but it's apt and altogether useful here. To their savory, classically-styled profiles Glantenay's wines add vivid, clear fruit, and their total personalities reveal a producer skillfully straddling tradition and modernity.
The Volnay 1er Cru 'Les Brouillards,' of which the domaine owns just over a hectare, presents as the completest 2016 in the cellar, besting the otherwise-notable Volnay 'Santenots' and Pommard 'Rugiens.' A delicately elegant fragrance of black raspberry points assertively to Volnay, as do the subtle tea and spice nuances that emerge to add depth and complexity. The palate offers a lovely pure beam of red fruit, raspberry and black cherry, and again that little tug of black tea.
This price point very rarely carries you so far in Burgundy. If you're, like me, among the infinitude of wine lovers who still think $70 ought to net you a superb bottle of Burgundy, you'll need to look no further.
Cheers,
Jason
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