Domaine Christophe Vaudoisey, Volnay


The family Vaudoisey settled in Volnay in 1804. Christophe and his wife, Laurence, took over the domaine from his father, Bernard Vaudoisey, in 1985. Subsequently, he has put a lot of energy into "valoriser un vignoble transmis de générations en générations et se dote en 2008 d'une nouvelle cuverie en bas du village". In 2012 Pierre Vaudoisey joined his father. Le domaine which includes 12 hectares, est conduit en lutte raisonnée, aiming at producing healthy grapes and controling les rendementes.

The manual harvesting is followed by un érafflage à 100% after which "les raisens sont mis en cuve pendent 10 jours environ, durant lesquels chaque jour auront lien un pigeage et un remontage associés à une régulation thermique permettant une fermentation optimale". After some 16-18 months en fûts de chéne (dont 30% de bois neuf) some 70% of the wine is bottled sans collage, uniquement aprés une légére filtration certaine années, while 30% is sold en vrac au négoce. While Bernard Vaudoisey according to Parker "is reputed to be a very traditional winemaker, dedicated to producing robust, tannic, intense, ageworthy wines from vineyards with extremely low yields, the wines of Christophe are characterized by" alliant race, finesse, élégance, et fruités. Les Volnays pourront s'apprécier dés les 2 ou 3 premiéres années. Quant a les Pommards, aux arômes et aux saveurs plus puissants et marqués, il sera bon de les consommer vers 5-6 ans.

Appelations rouges include Volnay 1er Cru "Clos des Chênes", " les Caillerets", "les Mitans" and "le Ronceret", Pommard 1er Cru "les Chanlins" and "Clos Micault", in addition to Volnay, Pommard and Monthelier village, and Bourgogne Rouge. Les vins blanc include Meursault "les Vireuils", Bourgogne Chardonnay and Aligoté.

On our first tasting at the domaine our expectations were met. Christophe makes harmonious but robust volnays, in which elegant fruit shines through the tannins. However, these wines are not for early drinking. Unfortunately, our tasting was headed by his father in law, whose knowledge on winemaking left us with many unanswered questions. When we returned in November, Laurence, Christophe's wife headed the tasting, a major improvement, but we look very much forward to tasting his millesime 2010 sélectionné par la revue Bourgogne Aujourd'hui and given note de 17/20! Hopefully, Christophe will have the time to join the tasing to improve our technical insight into this domaine.

On our next visit we finally met Christophe, and after having bought his Clos de Chênes and Les Cailleret, we left with high expectations, hoping that millésime 2010 over time would develop into subtle and seductive wines with plenty of finesse. Unfortunately, this never happened!

We recently learned that the domaine now has introduced l’effeuillage to improve maturity of the grapes. In addition, more travail du sol and less intervention during vinification have been introduced “recherchons plus l’infusion que l’extraction de matière. For the same reasons we have decided to return to investigate the impact of these changes.

https://www.domainechristophevaudoisey.com/bienvenue