The village of Volnay produces among the most elegant and gorgeously perfumed reds not only in Burgundy, but the world. While Volnay is home to 30 Premier Crus, there is near-universal agreement that five ancient vineyards—Premier Crus “Taillepieds,” “Caillerets,” “Champans,” “Clos des Chênes,” and “Santenots”—produce the village’s top wines. These are Volnay’s unofficial (but undisputed) “Grand Crus.” Furthermore, if one seeks the ultimate detail, finesse, and intoxicating Pinot Noir aromatics in a village revered for such traits, this already-short list gets whittled down to two: Clos des Chênes and today’s focus, Taillepieds. For my money, there are only two producers who consistently pull the finest quality from Taillepieds’ limestone soils. The first is the legendary Hubert de Montille, whose brilliant Taillepieds is virtually impossible to locate outside of high-end restaurants and generally retails upwards of $150/bottle. The second is Vincent Bitouzet, whose Taillepieds reliably receives superior accolades despite costing far less. I’ll choose option number two every time, and when you tack on a few extra years of bottle age, today’s wine is a surefire winner. 

I’ve noted before that when I first became a sommelier in the early 2000s, one could—with the proper resources—compile a diversity of outstanding, cellar-aged Burgundy with relative ease. Unfortunately, acquiring these wines today takes much deeper pockets, better connections, and more perseverance. More competition means there is far less mature Burgundy available, and what does remain is sometimes of questionable quality and provenance. Today we present a welcome reprieve from this frustrating challenge: This small collection of cases has been quietly hibernating in the same cold cellar since release. The condition of the corks and labels is immaculate, and the wine inside is beautiful.

The Bitouzet family has been farming in Volnay since the early 1800s and were among the first families in the village to bottle their own wines. The family’s holdings in Volnay, now overseen by Vincent Bitouzet, cover an impressive diversity of village-level and Premier Cru parcels. Bitouzet owns a modest .7 hectares of Taillepieds, which earns its name (roughly translated to “slash your feet”) because of its steep incline and rocky soils. This vineyard was first planted by the Bitouzet family in 1971, and, while the volume of its productivity is beginning to decline, it is absolutely peaking in terms of the depth and quality of wine it produces. The parcel produces about 150 cases of wine each vintage, less than 50 of which come into the US each year.

Vincent Bitouzet farms all his vineyards organically and all fruit is harvested by hand. This restraint is echoed in the cellar: juice is vinified gently and slowly with no heavy-handed technology and minimal sulfur. The end goal of the entire process is to produce wines that mature in the cellar for many years, and gradually evolve in aromatics and structure. The family’s wines are seldom open and enjoyable upon release, but they offer a consistently impressive reward to those patient enough to cellar the wines.

In this 2013 vintage, Bitouzet's Volnay 1er Cru Taillepieds is a beautiful storm of red and black cherry cherries, black mulberry, hibiscus, fresh garden herbs, and crushed limestone—and as always with the finest Taillepieds, there is a slowly unfurling black mushroom/aged tea leaf quality that delicately paints the edges of each sip. I look back on my notes from previous vintages of this same wine and there’s a common theme: namely, “completeness” and dark beauty that is evident in each successive year. This 2013 Taillepieds, like many before it, is proof that the finest bottles of red Burgundy have an ability to evoke experiences and sensations that transcend one’s existing understanding of grape variety and soil—this is not merely a wine, but rather a genuinely moving ‘experience’! Today’s bottle is just starting to scratch the surface of its prime drinking window. That said, its considerable energy, acidity, and dense, obsidian minerality promise years of evolution and improvement in your cellar—I’d say 12-13 years of upward trajectory until it plateaus. For those who, like me, can’t resist emptying an entire bottle immediately, I advise decanting for 90 minutes before serving in large Burgundy stems at 60 degrees. Please do this wine and yourself the honor of an appropriately kingly feast. My weapon of choice was a platter of succulent duck legs braised with red wine and prunes, served atop a cloud of buttery mashed potatoes. Enough said!