Volnay 1er Cru "les Caillerets"

When Henri Boillot formally reconstituted the domaine in 2005 — buying out his siblings and renaming it from Domaine Jean Boillot — he handed the red wine programme to his son Guillaume, a deliberate generational transfer that shifted the Volnay style toward greater textural density without abandoning the site's inherent finesse. Les Caillerets sits on Volnay's limestone base threaded with schistose layers, a geology that drives the appellation's characteristic iron-edged minerality and fine-grained tannin structure. Hand-harvested at 10,000 vines per hectare under lutte raisonnée — no insecticides, no herbicides — fruit arrives with phenolic precision earned in the vineyard. Guillaume ferments in tank with partial whole-bunch inclusion, then ages the wine for 18 months in 228-litre barrels at 50–70% new oak, a proportion that sits at the assertive end of Volnay convention and builds a textural scaffold the appellation rarely attempts. What sets this cuvée apart is that oak weight: most Volnay producers keep new wood well below 40% to protect the grape's delicacy, yet the schist-driven mineral tension of Les Caillerets absorbs the regime without losing site character. The 2022 vintage delivered ripe, well-structured fruit across the Côte de Beaune; expect concentrated dark cherry, iron-flecked earth, and a firm but polished tannic frame that rewards cellaring through the late 2020s and beyond.