2023 Domaine Jean-Marc Bouley Volnay 1er Cru "Clos des Chenes"

The 2023 Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Chênes has turned out especially well this year, wafting from the glass with aromas of sweet cherries, berries, peonies and aromatic bark. Full-bodied, satiny and seamless, it's broad shouldered and powerful but also unusually refined and precise. Bouley's holdings in Clos des Chênes comprise both white and red soils, and he observes that the white soils are producing more fruit these days, altering the profile of the blend in the direction of finesse. Walk through the vineyards of the Côte de Beaune, and Thomas Bouley’s eight hectares of vines are easy to spot. Their unusually high, evenly spaced canopies are hedged high and late (after bunch closure), casting dappled shade over supple, aerated soils that are often covered with a delicate carpet of grass and weeds. At harvest, his yields are moderate, and clusters are invariably open and healthy. Vineyards don’t look like this by accident, and it’s both Bouley’s results and the indefatigable work ethic that lies behind them that have won him the near-universal admiration of other growers along the Côte d’Or.(WK)