Look at the prices above. Is that what you’d expect to pay for a really delicious, admirable Côte d’Or white burgundy?
I had a chance recently to taste some of the wines of which 20-year-old British country wine merchant Private Cellar are most proud. Their buyer Nicola Arcedeckne-Butler MW works hard at nosing out trouvailles for their customers who, to judge from their selection, like French wine best. You can find all my tasting notes from this selection here.
The producer I was most impressed by was Domaine Jean Vaudoisey, a little outfit in a Volnay backstreet next to Domaine de la Pousse d’Or. It doesn’t even feature in Jasper Morris MW’s Burgundy bible Inside Burgundy and has only recently shown the effects of renewed attention.
While growing up, brothers Romain and Baptiste Poirrotte spent time in Volnay only in the holidays but in 2015, when they were only in their early 20s, they decided to take over the domaine from their grandfather and set about upgrading everything from the bottom up. They have changed virtually everything. In the vineyard they take great care to limit yields and ripen every grape, picking in small boxes so that grapes arrive whole at the cellar where sorting is punctilious. Purchases have included a pneumatic press, brand-new temperature-controlled tanks and they have changed cooper.
Here’s Arcedeckne-Butler’s description of what they did and have done: ‘They came to the domaine with a clean sheet, determined to make the best wines possible from their various plots but without the fettering of history to hold them back. These are wines which display an understated stroke of genius, with no grand flourishes but just a quiet naturalness which will, we have no doubt, make the Poirrotte brothers future stars.’ I usually have a pretty cynical attitude to sales talk but I’m inclined to agree with her.
They have a little slice of Volnay premier cru Les Mitans but otherwise their plots are either appellation Bourgogne or in the village appellations of Volnay, Meursault and Pommard, with their holdings in Pommard representing about half of their total 7.5 ha (18.5 acres). They have recently added a little land in Monthelie which is allowed only the Bourgogne appellation. According to Arcedeckne-Butler, ‘they have begun to separate out the higher-performing lieux dits wines to mature and bottle separately. This year sees the addition of Volnay Bouchères, on the Pommard side of the appellation, which is of consistently high quality so Romain thought it could stand on its own.’
I liked their village Pommard 2020, based on Vaumuriens, Chanlins and Riottes, a lot, and enjoyed how accessible it already is, exhibiting real life. It seemed decent value at £37.80 a bottle from Private Cellar for such an amount of burgundian pleasure and potential.
But it was their Bourgogne Chardonnay 2022 at £22.96 that really caught my attention. It would stand comparison with many a white burgundy with a smarter pedigree. It’s based on a 0.3-ha (0.7-acre) parcel of vines in Volnay which had previously been planted with Pinot Noir, but the brothers felt the land was more suited to Chardonnay. About 15% of the wine was aged in new oak but the rest went into three- and four-year-old barrels and some foudres. It’s a modest 12.5% but packed with flavour. I scored it 17, suggested drinking it from now until 2030, and wrote this note:
Pale straw colour. Very fine, savoury, classic white burgundy nose. Very light struck-match quality. Pretty palate, very fine and delicate but with no shortage of ripe fruit. So lively and perfect now. Difficult to know how it will mature but the ingredients are certainly there. Really pure. Lovely acidity. In a burgundian context, this is VGV. (JR)
I had tasted the Bourgogne Chardonnay 2020 back in 2022 and this was my note then:
Romain and Baptiste Poirrotte had to replant most of their Chardonnay vines when they took over from their grandfather and this is the third bottling of their regional Chardonnay, which comes from Volnay.
Interesting background to this wine, which doesn’t look overpriced next to the Margaret River Chardonnay that follows in this tasting. Very savoury and with a great cut of acidity. There are many white burgundies from grander appellations that aren’t nearly as satisfying as this. GV (JR)
When the d’Angervilles came to London recently to present their 2023s, I asked Guillaume’s daughter Margot, recently moved to Volnay to eventually take over the family domaine, about the brothers and she seemed fully cognisant of the good work they are doing.
Their wines have already caught the attention of importer Daniel Posner of Grapes The Wine Company in New York. He wrote ‘we love this domaine’ but he has already sold out of the 2022 Bourgogne Chardonnay, alas, and in early April was offering the 2023 vintage at the pre-arrival price of just $22.99 but I have a nasty feeling this may change. He is presumably busy working out how the heck his business is going to survive all these tariffs. But he is currently offering a very wide range of other bottlings from this domaine at ‘sale price’. This is definitely worth investigating.
Their other US importer is Drinkable Arts Importers of Connecticut, which reports that the domaine is ‘very nearly 100% organic’. Mary Chegwidden of Drinkable Arts reports that they have sold the Bourgogne Chardonnay 2022 to various local merchants: The Study and Wine Wise in Greenwich, The Wise Old Dog in West Hartford and Morristown, and Greenfield Hills and Fairfield Station in Fairfield. She also wrote, soon after the US tariffs announcement, ‘I was fortunate to offer our clients a side by side tasting between the Duc of Magenta’s Bourgogne Blanc, Les Houillères 2022 and Romain's this weekend – and while the Duke's finesse is always enjoyable, the Vaudoisey brothers made more of an impact for the California/New World drinkers, and hopefully opened up some taste buds. That is their consistency, and magic touch. In Connecticut our SRP is indeed $26.99, and for 2023 with the tariffs, we will be around $30–$32.’
According to Wine-Searcher.com, the wine is also sold by Vin10Vin and Le Wine Club in France.
Tariffs or not, I strongly advise you to keep an eye out for Domaine Jean Vaudoisey.
See this guide to all our coverage of Burgundy 2022, including a vintage report.
