2022 Volnay 1. Cru Les Caillerets Henri Boillot

(from a .60 ha parcel). A cool, restrained and equally elegant nose is overtly spicy with its ripe yet airy aromas of dark berry liqueur, earth and pretty floral elements. The racy, delicious and silky flavors sit on a firm base of minerality while delivering superb length on the beautifully balanced, youthfully austere and highly complex finale. This very classy effort should also drink reasonably well young but it has everything it needs for a long life.

A fine lush purple. The bouquet is also in a ripe and opulent style, suggesting a velvet touch to follow. Though the fruit is fully ripe it holds together better in the Caillerets than the Frémiets. A fine long and succulent finish. Fully covered tannins.

Boillot's Volnay Caillerets is a substantial wine. Guillaume explains that the domaine has two parcels, one producing tiny berries due to millerandage (troubled flowering). This gives the wine concentration, freshness and density to complement the ripe plum and fig fruit aromas. The wine is fermented in small oak casks, but the wood is well integrated despite some slightly astringent tannins. The firm tannins will resolve with some time in the bottle and the wine will drink well for 10 to 15 years.