Domaine Blain-Gagnard Volnay ‘Champans’ 2019

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Volnay is an attractive small village in the Côte de Beaune district of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or best known for producing elegant red wines from Pinot Noir. Champans is one of the appellation’s most recognisable 1er Cru vineyards and expresses the astonishing, velvety finesse of Volnay.

About Domaine Blain-Gagnard

This is one of the finest white Burgundy estates, where the wine-making involves minimal interventions. It is run by Jean-Marc Blain and his wife Claudine, the daughter of Jacques Gagnard-Delagrange.

The family owns some of the village’s greatest hillsides. New oak barrels are never used to excess, being subtly spread amongst the different cuvées, so that spicy oakiness is never perceptible here. Blain is also prudent with stirring-up of the lees (known as bâtonnage) which, if used to excess, may result in heavy wines which taste mealy. Here, on the contrary, the finished wines have great purity of fruit, with balanced acidity and long, clean flavours which clearly evoke the wines’ precise origins.

In the Vineyard

The vines are farmed traditionally, using lutte raisonée (literally “reasoned fight” in French) to control pest and disease pressures as they arise in the vineyard.

In the Winery

“Claudine’s grandfather said that perfectly ripe Chardonnay should smell like fresh almonds, so when she smells fresh almonds in the juice, she’s very happy,” says Jean-Marc Blain.

Following pressing, their Chardonnay fruit is inoculated with selected cultured yeast and fermentation takes place in barrel. The lees are stirred once a week until late December or, in some vintages, until February. White wines are aged in various percentages of new oak with 10-20% new oak for the village wines and up to 30% new oak for the premier and grands crus.

For their Pinot Noir, the fruit is de-stemmed and the grapes are cold soaked for three to four days followed by fermentation with native yeasts. Red wines are aged for 18 month in used barrels.

The 2019 Vintage at Domaine Blain-Gagnard

The shy and modest Jean-Marc Blain offered a mixed view of the 2019 vintage, observing that “it gave us excellent quality but unfortunately, very low quantity for a number of wines. Our vines suffered significant frost losses that were exacerbated by a poor flowering plus the hot and dry conditions were enough to cause hydric stress, particularly among the younger vines. We picked from the 9th of September and brought in ultra-clean fruit that averaged between 12.5 and 13% alcohols. I keep hearing of domaines that had wines hitting 15% but that certainly wasn’t the case here. By contrast, acidities were in some cases a bit low and in those cases I did touch them up. As I noted, yields were not high though they were quite variable as the percentage of loss ranged between 25 and fully 90%. The good news though is that wine quality is excellent as the wines are rich but quite serious and both colors should be capable of extended aging for those who prefer mature Burgundies.” Blain noted that the white were bottled in August 2020.

Allen Meadows, Burghound

Where in the World is Domaine Blain-Gagnard

Domaine Marc-Antonin Blain is located in Chassagne-Montrachet in the Côte de Beaune. The appellation is famous for its white wines, although half of its total plantings are in red.

As well as their Grand Crus, Blain-Gagnard’s holdings in Chassagne-Montrachet include the red premier crus of Clos Saint Jean and Morgeot, and the white premier crus of Morgeot, Boudriotte, and Cailleret. In addition to the Grand Crus Bâtard-Montrachet and Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet, in 1999 they received a parcel of Le Montrachet from Jacques Gagnard. From 2000 onward, Le Montrachet from this parcel is made at and bottled as Domaine Blain-Gagnard.

Additionally, the domaine holds premier cru parcels of Volnay Chanlin, Volnay Pitures, and in the Pommard lieu-dit La Croix Planet les Combes.