2022 Domaine Jean-Marc Bouley Volnay 1er Cru "Carelle Sous La Chapelle"

The 2022 Volnay 1er Cru Carelle sous la Chapelle is very suave and integrated for a wine that can sometimes be one of the blockier cuvées in the range. Offering up notes of dark berries, cherries and licorice, followed by a medium to full-bodied, ample and layered palate, it's rich and textural, with ripe tannins and a sweet core of fruit. Walk through the vineyards of the Côte de Beaune, and Thomas Bouley’s vines are easy to spot. Their unusually high, evenly spaced canopies are hedged little and late, 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)