2008 Volnay Caillerets

From 56 year old vines located adjacent to Domaine de la Pousse d’Or’s “60 Ouvrees” monopole, Glantenay’s 2008 Volnay Caillerets features fresh, ripe, tart-edged cassis and blackberry tinged with mace, chalk dust, and black pepper. Fine-grained in texture and invigoratingly bright, it stains the palate and finishes with memorable vibrancy, even if with flavors that are relatively low-toned and even a bit austere. Here is a 2008 that I am confident has the right stuff for 15 or more years of cellaring and promises yet further complexity. Young Thierry Glantenay – whom I met for the first time this March – has the luck to have inherited old vines acquired or planted by his grandfather in some of the most prestigious sites of Volnay, Pommard, and Puligny, and is applying to them evident care and intelligence, given which facts it isn’t surprising – even though it was news to me – that his cellar is a superb source of Burgundy. Glantenay’s finished 2008s are in the low-13s of alcoholic percentage, having for the most part been boosted by one-half to one degree. All of them were in tank when I tasted, and none were due to be filtered at bottling, although the village Volnay, Caillerets, and Rugiens had been lightly “pre-filtered” to deal with what Glantenay deemed excess turbidity. Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville , PA; tel. (610) 486-0800