Domaine Henri Boillot Volnay Premier Cru Les Chevrets, 2019, 75cl

The 2019 Volnay 1er Cru Les Chevrets offers up aromas of plums, cassis, orange rind, petals and raw cocoa. Medium to full-bodied, lively and nicely concentrated, it's bright and fine-boned, concluding with a long finish. Produced from almost 60-year-old vines, this is a long-time fixture of the range. Guillaume Boillot began the harvest on September 6, as usual starting in Volnay. Yields were down, and alcohol levels ranged between 13% and 14.2%. "My father told me to frame the must analyses, as one couldn't hope for anything more perfect," he laughed. Whereas in 2018, Boillot was able to press all his white wines with a vertical basket press, in 2019 he reverted to a pneumatic press, explaining that even after foulage (crushing), it was simply too difficult to extract juice from the thick-skinned small berries that characterized the vintage. "Vinification intégrale," which is to say barrel fermentation of red wines, is still the order of the day for most of the red wine cuvées at this address. The other trend, which sharp-eyed readers will have picked up on, is a move toward more and more domaine-grown fruit: first came the Pommard 1er Cru Clos Blanc, which joined the range in 2018, and this year the Meursault 1er Cru Clos Richemont enters the portfolio. Boillot tells me that he has ambitions to continue this gradual transition. The 2019 vintage, in any case, is a great success, achieving both impressive quality and consistency, and these wines come warmly recommended.