Bourgogne Côte d'Or Pinot Noir AOC 2021

A fresh, fragrant and juicy Volnay, medium garnet and slightly translucent in the glass. The nose leads to ripe cherries and sour cherries, raspberries and cranberries, underscored by yeast, wet pebbles and a touch of undergrowth.

The grapes come from plots totalling 0.97 hectares on the lower slope of Volnay. The soil is deep and clay-rich over a limestone base, with an average vine age of 30 years. Thomas Bouley farms a total of eight hectares across 29 plots in Volnay, Pommard and Beaune, organically without certification and with biodynamic influences: winter cover crops against erosion, summer weeds to regulate moisture, no synthetic treatments and no herbicides.

Pure Pinot Noir. In this vintage the grapes were fully destemmed and fermented for two weeks in open vats. Ageing lasted twelve months in barrique, with a new-oak proportion of 10%. The barrel thus remains a tool rather than a flavour — fruit and elegance keep the leading role. 13.0% ABV, dry.

Vibrant and clear, with red and black berry fruit, again cherry and herbs. The vintage's acidity carries the crisp fruit, the tannins stay fine, the texture supple.

Pairs with ravioli with mixed mushrooms in a reduced mushroom stock, with pasta with porcini-aubergine sugo, and with eel marinated and cooked in red wine with umeboshi.

Thomas Bouley joined his father Jean-Marc in 2002 at the age of twenty. Cosmic rhythms inform pruning and bottling, though he doesn't follow the biodynamic rulebook: "It's about healthy grapes, not ideology." Yields remain low, the share of manual work high.