What's Pressoir Drinking - Domaine de la Pousse d'Or Volnay 1er Cru Caillerets Clos des 60 Ouvrées 1996

Oct 21

Edouard Bourgeois
Octobr 21, 2022

Volnay, the Côte d’Or village whose charm reminds of the wines that bear the same name, is beautifully nestled in the Côte de Beaune between its northern neighbors of Pommard to the north and Meursault to the south. The few houses, home to barely 250 inhabitants, surround the typical gothic church, proudly standing as it chimes the hours going by.

Volnay suggests finesse, the silky mouthfeel and the irresistible bouquet of delicate wild strawberries, rose and griotte cherries. I was thrilled with an exquisite bottle of Domaine de la Pousse d’Or, Volnay 1er Cru Caillerets Clos des 60 Ouvrées 1996 tasted last week in Beaune. This wine was the last vintage made by legendary winemaker Gerard Potel. The agronomist vigneron settled with his wife Francoise in Volnay in 1964, the same year he started working at Domaine de la Pousse d’Or. M. Potel had been making wine there until his death in 1997, and his legacy is immense, being among the handful of winemakers who seem to have gold in their hands. Even in a challenging vintage, M. Potel could make a magnificent wine thanks to his magic touch and rigor. 1996, the vintage I was lucky to taste that night, is often known for its high acidity in red Burgundies, but not here. Note that this bottle was tasted after a long day and many other fantastic bottles. That Volnay provided an intense pleasure and perfect drinkability, immediately bringing smiles of delight around the room.

Domaine de la Pousse d’Or, officially founded in 1954 by the families of Chavigné and Lavoreille traces wine growing back to the 4th century and later with the ducs de Bourgogne in 1100. Today, the domaine is in the hands of Patrick Landanger and his son Benoit. Seventeen hectares are organically farmed in the some of the most prestigious vineyards of Burgundy. Among them, no less than seven Grands Crus and eleven Premiers Crus are spread around the communes of Morey-Saint-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Aloxe-Corton, Pommard, Puligny-Montrachet, Santenay and Volnay, of course. One cannot miss the large bourgeois house when driving by on the route des Grands Crus.

The domaine proudly owns three monopoles, among them the Clos des 60 Ouvrées I tasted, a vineyard that is part of the 1er Cru climat “Caillerets” in Volnay. The name of Clos des 60 Ouvrées is a reference to its size. If the hectare is the most common measure system for the surface of land, the ouvrée, once used in viticulture, represents the estimated size of land a vineyard worker would cover in one day. Clos des 60 Ouvrées represents 2,39 hectares, almost 6 acres. Although there is no official size to calculate one ouvrée, it is considered that there are 24 ouvrées in one hectare.