“This is a very fine premier cru. TheLes Mitans demonstrates very well the finesse of the wines made in Volnay.”

• 50+ year old vines
• Clay-limestone soils
• 280 m altitude
• De-stemmed
• Indigenous yeast
• Aged in barrel (30% new)
• 3 barrels made
• Unfined and unfiltered

At Domaine Yvon Clerget the grapes are hand harvested, sorted in the vineyard and then completely destemmed. The cold maceration takes place for five to seven days and the whole process lasts for 15 to 20 days in a stainless steel tank. During the maceration, pump-overs are used and the cap is pushed down once per day. The wine undergoes its malolactic fermentation in 228 litre French oak barrels and is then matured for twelve months. Before bottling, the wine matures for two months in a stainless steel tank. 25% new French oak is used.

TN: The nose is delicate with profound notes of red fruits, rose petals and black fruits. The palate is refined and delicate with some candied fruits going through to the finish with ample energy and freshness. It can be paired with charcuterie, charcoaled meat, a large array of cows milk cheese and roast poultry. Drink now with 35 minutes of decanting or keep up until 2026 and beyond.

Vinous’ Neal Martin on October 2023:
Twelve months ago, I inspected the building site Thibaud Clerget hoped would turn into a new first-floor tasting room. Well, thats now complete: a spacious, chichi space with sofas, a walk-in cool-room to house back vintages and a large table for tasting. Thats not the big news. No, the headline is that in July 2022, Clerget bought Domaine Regis Rossignol-Changarnier and its eight hectares of vine. These were split with fellow winemaker Arnaud Baillot, though as Clerget put the deal together, he essentially got first dibs on which vineyards he wanted to add to his Pommard/Volnay-focused portfolio. Each ended up with four hectares. Apropos the 2022s, note that Clerget was advising Rossignol-Changarnierschef de cultureon how to farm the vines before the acquisition. Hence, it isnt a case of having zero control of viticulture before the deal went through. Clerget said he now has ten hectares, which is a sufficient size.

It was a much easier growing season, he continues. I just needed to do six or seven treatments in the vines with just a littlecoulure, so the bunches were not too densely clustered. We had 100mm of rain at the end of June. I started the harvest on August 25 in the Clos du Verseuil and finished on September 8. I didnt make much wine, just 35hL/ha for the reds and 45hL/ha for the whites. I did only pump-overs for the extraction with no pumping down – infusion, really. I used some whole bunch on the reds, depending on the vineyard. I like the 2022 vintage as we have balance and freshness. The reds had been racked three or four weeks earlier to spend the second year in tank, and they will be bottled in March and April without filtration.

This is a fine set of wines from Clerget, capped by strong showings of his Volnay Les Caillerets and Pommard Les Rugiens, both eclipsing the Clos de Vougeot that I felt showed a little too much stem influence (maybe 30% would have worked better than 50%). Clerget has been using WineGlobes for a couple of vintages now and experimented with a cuve completely matured in the glass containers his debut Volnay Clos des Angles. As I remarked to Clerget, I am unconvinced that they offer a viable alternative to oak barrels. Indeed, I feel he thinks the same way and mentioned that for 2023, that cuve combines WineGlobe and oak barrel.