Wine Advisor
Henri Boillot, Volnay 1er Cru Les Fremiets 2016
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2016 Volnay Les Fremiets 1er Cru has a composed and harmonious bouquet with nicely integrated oak, perhaps just a little gamey in style although it does not dominate the overall aromatics. The palate is medium-bodied with chewy, quite firm tannin though coated with the fleshy fruit that one expects from a Volnay. I am not quite sure if the oak regime snugly fits the fruit profile. It seems to shave off too many edges on the finish, rending it simpler than it otherwise might have been. Perhaps bottle age will meliorate this Volnay since it certainly has good substance. Tasted blind at the 2016 Burgfest tasting in Burgundy.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
(these vines are 25 to 50 years old; from whiter soil that typical yields a harder, more austere style of wine than the Chevrets): Medium red. More discreet and a bit more medicinal on the nose than the Chevrets. Juicy red berry flavors are lifted by spicy high notes but kept under wraps by salty minerality and a medicinal menthol aspect.. Boasts lovely lift and inner-mouth tension and finishes with very fine-grained tannins, but this very promising wine will require at least a few years of bottle aging to loosen up a bit.
About the Producer
Domaine Henri Boillot, located in the wine-producing village of Meursault in the Cote de Beaune, Burgundy, France, is a winery with a long history of quality. The vineyards of Château Boileau are located in the Côtes de Bern and Cote de Nuits appellations. The grapes for the white wines are mainly produced in the Grand Cru and Premier Cru of Prigny-Montrachet, where the soil is mainly brown limestone with occasional limestone clay soils, giving the white wines a complex and elegant taste. The grapes for the red wines come mainly from the first growths of the Volnay appellation, where the soils are mainly schist and limestone, giving the wines aromatic intensity and finesse. Château Boisrot follows traditional winemaking techniques. When the grapes reach optimum ripeness, they are picked by hand and transported to the winery. In the winery, the grapes are carefully selected and destemmed by the winery workers in order to select the best quality fruit. For the white wines, the grapes are pressed after breaking their skins and the must is then poured into fermenters where it is partially fermented and transferred to new French oak barrels for maturation. Unlike white wines, red wines are made by placing the broken skins of the grapes directly into the fermenters, allowing the skins to come into contact with the juice to extract the right amount of pigments, tannins and flavours. After fermentation, all red wines are matured in new French oak barrels, allowing oxygen to penetrate through the grain and soften the tannins, giving the wine a smooth texture and complex aromas. Currently, all of Château Boisrot's white wines are made from Chardonnay, a fresh and fruity wine that has been described as the 'star of white wines' in Burgundy. The red wines are all made from Pinot Noir, a rich and powerful wine that has received a great deal of praise from wine critics and wine reviewers.
