Vinous 93-95

Having been impressed by the showing of Domaine Francois Buffet’s wines in the Burgfest tasting, it was time to pay winemaker Marc-Olivier Buffet a visit at his Volnay winery, which lies opposite the church. The domaine has been in the family since 1792, and probably before that, we were winemakers for the dukes, he told me in impeccable English. One century ago, we had a huge business as a negoce, maybe the fifth-biggest in Burgundy. My ancestor lost all the money due having too many Russian loans, and the vineyard we own is what we have left. I worked in insurance before and then changed to winemaking. It runs in the family. My father worked for IBM and my grandfather was a musician before both became winemakers. We have been converting the vineyards to organic since 2021, so the first certified vintage will be 2024, but we have unofficially been in the process for a long time. Three hectares are biodynamic, but that is just to see what effects it has on the vines – I have no preconceptions. The domaine owns eight hectares of vineyard with 15 wines, all red except for our Aligote. There are six Premier Crus in Volnay. We use partial whole bunch, though we used none in 2021 because I felt there was insufficient maturity, but in 2020 there is some in the top cuvees, around one-third (see tasting notes for details). It used to get 100%, but that was too much, so I changed in 2014 to partial whole bunch. We use natural cork, except for the regional cuvees, where we use Nomacork. These superb 2020s from Buffet were picked from August 22. I find great purity, poise and terroir expression here, with silky tannins and vivacious red fruit. Whole bunch was used prudently, only added where necessary. This is another Volnay producer to add to the list of those delivering higher-quality wines than ever. The 2020 Volnay Clos des Chenes 1er Cru, which contains one-third whole bunch, offers dark cherry, bergamot, cranberry and light earthy notes on the nose. The palate is very well balanced with fine substance, quite crystalline red fruit with excellent tension and energy on the finish. Superb! [Neal Martin, 13/10/2021]

Anticipated maturity: 2025-2045