Monday, January 4, 2016

Domaine Réyane et Pascal Bouley (Volnay) -- 2014s Tasted from Tank



The vines here are located in the center of the 2012-13-14 hailstorms; in addition, with the damage done to the vines in those three years and the small berries of 2015, that is a small vintage, too. 2014 is about 35% of a normal crop, 2015 about half. That said, the good news is that there is quality here and nothing that should stop fans of this estate from buying the 2014s, should they be able to find them. Even before considering the stress that three consecutive years of hail put on the vines, this is a good vintage, and adding that stress in, the feat is even more impressive.


Harvesting in 2014 took place from 13 to 18 September. As always, there was a sorting here, but in this vintage, there really wasn’t a lot to sort out – not much rot or problem with the Asian fruit fly. The grapes were entirely destemmed. All cuvées received some chaptalization. Malolactic fermentations finished in December 2014. Bottling was to take place in mid-November 2015.

The wines were tasted from tank while awaiting the bottling a few weeks later. (Continue reading here.)

posted by Claude Kolm has been writing The Fine Wine Review since 1986. At the end of 2014, it switched to a blog in order to allow more timely and in depth information about estates. @ 5:08 PM