Roblet-Monnot Volnay Brouillards 1er Cru 2020 (750ML)

92-94 WA

The 2020 Volnay 1er Cru Les Brouillards is exceptional, wafting from the glass with aromas of wild berries and plums mingled with rose petals and raw cocoa. Medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it's deep and vibrant, concluding with an intensely perfumed finish.

Setting his 2020s in the context of Burgundy's recent trilogy of warm, dry vintages, Pascal Roblet describes them as "nothing like 2018, and on the same qualitative level as 2019—while being 2019's stylistic opposite." It's a thoughtful analysis that is worth spending a moment unpacking. Primary and vibrant after a year's élevage, this is a very promising set of wines, and I'll certainly be adding some to my own cellar.

Since it was only last year that I began covering this estate in these pages, it's worth repeating that Roblet is a viticultural pioneer: in 2002, just two years after Lalou Bize-Leroy, he stopped "rognage" (i.e., trimming) of his vines to avoid cutting their apical shoots; and in his holdings in the Hautes-Côtes, where lower planting densities and higher-trained vines permit it, he works in permaculture. Once considered eccentric—and indeed still at odds with the dominant approach to viticulture, which sometimes seems to owe more to 18th-century geometric garden design than to any understanding of vines' physiology—Burgundy has at last evolved enough for such initiatives to be thought avant-garde (even though at this address they have been in place for the better part of two decades).

If work in the vineyards is forward-thinking, winemaking is founded on very traditional principles: long cuvaisons and long élevage. Destemming or not, depending on the vintage and cuvée, Roblet works only with pigéage, doing nothing for the first two weeks of cuvaison and punching down for the following two. In the cellar, élevage lasts between 18 and 24 months, and the presence of new oak these days is minimal, with Roblet increasingly favoring 400-liter barrels in lieu of 228-liter pièces. The results are superb: deep, concentrated and complex wines, with considerable aging potential, built around beautifully powdery tannins. As I wrote last year, quite why this high-quality domaine languishes in comparative obscurity escapes me. But when the wines are this good, it is only a matter of time until people start paying attention, so I encourage readers to acquaint themselves with Domaine Roblet-Monnot while they still can.
—William Kelley, The Wine Advocate

Pascal Roblet, formerly married to Cecile Tremblay, is making some of the finest Volnay. Savvy Burgundy buyers should be jump on these hard to find wines before they become unattainable.