Volnay-Santenots Premier Cru AOC 2023

A Volnay of crystalline clarity that lets the fruit speak without embellishment. At 13.0% ABV, the wine stays cool and dry, with its energy drawn from acidity and salinity rather than oak or extract. Anyone seeking Pinot Noir in its most transparent form will find exactly that here.

The grapes come from the Premier Cru Santenots in the Côte de Beaune. Domaine Rougeot Père & Fils is based in Meursault and farms 12.6 hectares with parcels in Meursault, Volnay, and Pommard, expanded in the 1960s by grandfather Hubert, who served as mayor of Meursault for 25 years. The estate has been organic-certified since 2020, with Demeter conversion underway since 2021; work in the vineyard is done entirely by hand, with tractors barely used. As Pierre-Henri Rougeot puts it: "There can be no good wine from bad soil."

Single-varietal Pinot Noir. The grapes remain uncrushed as whole clusters and ferment spontaneously with the wine's own yeasts. Aging takes place in 228-litre Burgundy barrels with a deliberately low proportion of new oak, in 18th-century cellars originally built for the Hospices de Beaune. No sulfur is added throughout the entire aging process, and the wine is neither fined nor filtered.

A juicy entry of morello cherry and red forest berries, layered with a floral note of violet. The tannin is fine and silky, with a saline-mineral pull carrying through into a long finish.

Pairs well with duck breast cooked pink, roast pheasant, boeuf bourguignon, and sautéed wild mushrooms.

Pierre-Henri Rougeot shifted the estate away from supermarket-grade wine toward quality winemaking in 2016. His diagonally striped labels signify the house's cuvées aged without sulfur.