Domaine Bernard & Thierry Glantenay Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Chenes 2022

Clos des Chênes is one of Volnay’s great Premier Crus, sitting at the top of the hillside in the middle of the appellation, near the vines of Lafon and Château de Meursault. Thierry Glantenay, a humble and discreet winemaker whom critics rate as one of the quietly excellent growers in Volnay, has a parcel here that is always the last wine in the cellar to be tasted. It is the riper, richer and most masculine of his wines. The parcel includes vines that are over 80 years old as well as younger plantings, and in some years a quarter to a third of the fruit is whole bunch. Glantenay prefers to let temperature and alcohol do the work of extraction, keeping pigeage and remontage to a minimum in his cement vats. Production is tiny, with as little as two barrels in some years.

The result is the most dramatic and aromatic wine in his cellar. The 2022 is described as the ripest in the cellar, bursting with cherries, plums, spices and petals, ample and voluminous, with a sweet core of fruit and rich structuring tannins.