2018 Pierrick Bouley Volnay 1er Cru 'Champans'

There are a number of promising young growers bubbling up in Volnay at the moment. Réyane & Pascal Bouley passed the running of the domaine to their son Pierrick in 2014 after he’d worked alongside them for 5 years. Now in his late twenties, and a sixth generation of winemaker, he had previously gained experience by working at Felton Road in Otago, NZ.

Pierrick has a total of 9ha, of which 6ha are Volnay with 1.5ha of six different 1er crus, including Clos des Chênes and Champans. He has many tiny holdings (41 parcels!) with an average vine age of 60yo+. His philosophy is biodynamic (without being certified or religious), his father having cut out the use of chemicals in the vineyard back in 2003. Pierrick works his soils lightly, no deep ploughing but griffage and interceps instead, and the vines are weaved (no trimming) to preserve the shoot apex and avoid plant stress, he also carries out trials of training the vines to a higher 1.8m in order to provide more shade.

Everything is of course picked by hand, sorted, and completely destemmed, after which the wines undergo a 15-20 days cuvaison with remontages and just two or three pigeages in total. He uses no sulphur during the vinification or élevage, just a touch at racking and bottling (40mg/l total), and ages for a year in new to 5yo old barrels with a low 'chauffe' level, before assembling in cuve and bottling without filtration in December.