Domaine Nicolas Rossignol Volnay 1er Cru Santenots 2018
We have 2 in stock (Inventory is live and accurate)
The Land
Nicolas Rossignol says his Santenots tastes more like the Côte de Nuits than the Côte de Beaune, and the soil explains why. Volnay 1er Cru Santenots actually lies over the commune line in Meursault, on the gentle slope just south of Volnay village; red Pinot Noir from the climat takes the Volnay name, while white from the same ground is labeled Meursault. Rossignol's vines sit in the lower part of Santenots, level with the 1er Cru Roncerets, in deep, dark red soil heavy with iron and studded with large, round limestone rocks. That iron-rich ground gives this Volnay red wine its density, darker fruit, and firmer tannin, far from the lacy Volnay of Caillerets upslope.
The Wine
Domaine Nicolas Rossignol Volnay 1er Cru Santenots 2018 is 100% Pinot Noir, fully destemmed in this vintage. Rossignol vinifies the parcel's different soils as separate lots across several tanks and blends them in barrel, marrying the finesse of the lower ground with the power of the rockier section. Fermentation runs on native yeasts, malolactic is held back until the following spring, and the wine rests on fine lees without racking for 10 to 20 months before bottling with no fining or filtration. The 2018 season was hot, dry, and sunny, with a large, healthy crop and an early harvest, and this bottle carries 14.1 percent alcohol. Young, it showed dense red and black cherry, game, and forest floor over a silky, weighty frame. At eight years, expect the fruit to move toward dried cherry, leather, and iron, with the tannin settling into a long, savory finish.
The People
Nicolas Rossignol was born in Volnay in 1974, the fifth generation of his family to farm there, and he went looking at other ways of working first. After viticulture school in Beaune he worked with Joseph Voillot in Volnay and at Louis Latour, then did stints at Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Château La Cardonne in Bordeaux, and Boschendal in South Africa. He began making the family wine at Domaine Rossignol-Jeanniard in 1994 and launched his own domaine in 1997. In the vineyard he follows biodynamic principles without certification: soils are plowed, no herbicides are used, and conventional treatments come out only when a season demands them. His line on the cellar is that it is not a recipe. Stem inclusion, extraction, and new oak all change by site and by year.
Food Pairing
Santenots has the iron and gamey depth for serious cold-weather cooking. Venison loin seared rare with a juniper and red currant sauce matches the dark fruit, and the lean, rich meat softens the tannin. Beef cheeks braised for hours in red wine with carrots and thyme turn tender enough to meet the wine's silky texture. Roast squab with a reduction of its own jus and a handful of morels plays to the forest-floor side. A ripe Époisses works because the acidity cuts straight through the funk. This is the Volnay to open on a snowy Sunday when the oven has been on all afternoon.
We ship wine to most states with a $100 minimum order for shipping. We don't ship spirits nor beer.
Weather shipping advisory: Orders placed during times of extreme heat or extreme cold will be held for no charge until more favorable weather returns.
Burgundy, in eastern France, encompasses several subregions, but it is the Côte d'Or that is home to many of the world's most expensive and revered wines. The region, primarily a single east-facing slope, has mixed limestone soils that vary dramatically from village to village and even vineyard to vineyard. White wines, crafted from Chardonnay, range from rich and opulent to lean and intensely mineral, while Pinot Noir produces silky, perfumed red wines of exceptional finesse and complexity. Centuries of winemaking tradition have resulted in every plot being meticulously recognized and scrutinized, making the Côte d'Or a true capital of terroir.
Burgundy - Cote d'Or
Pinot Noir is a thin-skinned, notoriously difficult-to-grow, low-yielding grape that finds its ancestral home in Burgundy, France, where it produces some of the world's most elegant and nuanced wines. While Burgundy remains its spiritual heartland, Pinot Noir has since traveled the globe, finding success in other cooler climates, notably in California, Oregon, New Zealand, and Germany. This grape is a challenge for any grower, as it requires specific conditions to show its best, and yet the wines it produces are capable of such a captivating and singular character.
