2013 Bouchard Pere et Fils Volnay Caillerets Ancienne Cuvee Carnot 1er Cru

(91 Points) The 2013 Volnay 1er Cru Les Caillerets "Ancienne Cuvée Carnot" is showing well, opening in the glass with a complex bouquet of smoked meats, hoisin, wild berry fruit and spices. On the palate, the wine is medium-bodied, delicate and precise, with racy acids, powdery tannins and impressive concentration despite its fine-boned format, and its sappy expression of fruit is complemented by considerable savory nuance, concluding with a sappy finish.

This small report looks at five wines from the 2013 vintage that Bouchard Père & Fils is releasing direct from their cellars as part of their "Cellar Selections" program. A challenging growing season and a late harvest made 2013 complicated for growers, but producers who sorted rigorously made beautiful wines that tend to be a little underrated today. Extended hang time (closer to 110 days than the "classic" 100) made for perfectly mature, powdery phenolics despite the racy acids that were preserved by the cool growing season, and the late harvest seems to have lent the wines what is best described as elegantly degraded, autumnal fruit tones that are very appealing—partly because vintages of this style, once commonplace, have become decidedly rare in the last decade. The 2013 vintage is also quite appealing for white Burgundy, with the caveat that some of the wines show the influence of botrytis, something that tends to be polarizing. These releases from Bouchard are quite typical of the style of the vintage, and they're showing well today, though there is no urgency to drink them up. I met cellarmaster Frédéric Weber at Bouchard Père this year at their winery (on the Beaune péripherique) bustling with tourists. Once we had gotten away from the madding crowds, I tasted through their entire range. “It was a little complicated in the vineyard,” Frédéric explained somewhat euphemistically. “The winter was cold and humid and this retarded the vegetative cycle by around 20 days. There was a lot of coulure in the Côte de Nuits so there was a small harvest. We lost around 30% of the crop from flowering there, but in the Côte de Beaune the flowering was better. However, there was the hailstorm on 23 July and for example, the vineyard of Pommard Pezerolles was completely lost. Fortunately, July was sunnier and it [the growing cycle] managed to catch up. We de-leafed the vines and we found that the berries were small and this aided aeration. We commenced the harvest on 30 September and it finished quite late on 11 October. We undertook a slightly longer maceration this year and we did one pigeage per day and no remontage for a more progressive fermentation. So in total there was an 18 to 22 days cuvaison. There was also greater stem addition this year up to 30% and these were covered in the vat with de-stemmed berries.” I must confess that I found the range of wines from this historic producer a little inconsistent, in particular with regard to the reds that lacked the depth, fruit concentration, the panache of the more impressive 2012s last year. That is to be expected given the growing season. Matters improved once we began broaching the whites and especially around Puligny. Bouchard’s Puligny Combettes is as good as anything I tasted from that premier cru during my travels, likewise their Meursault Perrières: both excellent examples. My advice is to tread carefully in 2013. There are certainly some gems, but also wines that I suspect will be overshadowed by the 2012 and the forthcoming 2014s. Published: Aug 30, 2019  William Kelley, WINE ADVOCATE