Volnay wine is produced in the commune of Volnay in

Côte de Beaune The Côte de Beaune area is the southern part of the Côte d'Or (escarpment), Côte d'Or, the limestone ridge that is home to the great names of Burgundy wine. The Côte de Beaune (France) starts between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Beaune, and exten ...

Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...

, and in some vineyards in the commune of

Meursault Meursault () is a Communes of France, commune in the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. Etymology The oldest attested form of the toponym Meursault dates from 1094, as ''Mura ...

. The ''

Appellation d'origine contrôlée In France, the ''appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (, ; abbr. AOC ) is a label that identifies an agricultural product whose stages of production and processing are carried out in a defined geographical area – the ''terroir'' – and using ...

'' (AOC) Volnay is only used for

red wine Red wine is a type of wine made from dark-colored grape varieties - (red grapes.) The color of the wine can range from intense violet, typical of young wines, through to brick red for mature wines and brown for older red wines. The juice fro ...

with

pinot noir Pinot noir (), also known as Pinot nero, is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name also refers to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words fo ...

as the main grape variety. There are no Grand Cru vineyards within Volnay, but several highly regarded

Premier Cru Cru is a wine Glossary of wine terms, term used to indicate a high-quality vineyard or group of vineyards. It is a French language, French word which was originally used to refer to both a region and anything grown in it, but is now mostly used t ...

vineyards. The AOC was created in . In 2008, there were of vineyard surface was in production for Volnay wine at village and Premier Cru level, and 7,733 hectoliter of wine was produced, corresponding to just over 1 million bottles. The AOC regulations also allow up to 15% total of

chardonnay Chardonnay (, ; ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new a ...

pinot blanc Pinot blanc () or Pinot bianco is a white wine grape. It is a point genetic mutation of Pinot noir. Pinot noir is genetically unstable and will occasionally experience a point mutation in which a vine bears all black fruit except for one cane wh ...

and

pinot gris Pinot gris, pinot grigio (, ), or ''Grauburgunder'' is a white wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. Thought to be a mutant clone of the pinot noir variety, it normally has a pinkish-gray hue, accounting for its name, but th ...

as accessory grapes in the red wines, but this not very often practiced. The allowed base yield is 40 hectoliter per hectare. The grapes must reach a maturity of at least 10.5%

potential alcohol Must weight is a measure of the amount of sugar in grape juice (must) and, hence, indicates the amount of alcohol that could be produced if it is all fermented to alcohol, rather than left as residual sugar.aromatic In organic chemistry, aromaticity is a chemical property describing the way in which a conjugated system, conjugated ring of unsaturated bonds, lone pairs, or empty orbitals exhibits a stabilization stronger than would be expected from conjugati ...

, and elegant rather than powerful, with considerably less

tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and Precipitation (chemistry), precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' is widel ...

than the Pommard wines from the neighboring village.

Premiers Crus

There are 29 ''

climat CLIMAT is a code for reporting monthly climatological data assembled at land-based meteorological surface observation sites to data centres. CLIMAT-coded messages contain information on several meteorological variables that are important to monitor ...

s'' within the Volnay AOC that are classified as ''Premier Cru'' vineyards, which stretch in a wide band through the commune, located mid-slope and on both sides of the D973 road. Their wines are designated ''Volnay Premier Cru'' + vineyard name, or may be labelled just ''Volnay Premier Cru'', in which case it is possible to blend wine from several Premier Cru vineyards within the AOC. In 2007, of the total Volnay vineyard surface consisted of Premier Cru vineyards. The annual production of Premier Cru wine, as a five-year average, is 4,756 hectoliter. The ''climats'' classified as Premiers Crus, and located within Volnay, are:

Volnay-Santenots

Five ''climats'' in the north of Meursault, just across the border from the commune of Volnay, together make up Santenots, which also fall within the Volnay AOC and therefore can use the designation Volnay-Santenots for red wine. All are classified as Premier Cru. While it is allowed to produce both white and red

Meursault wine Meursault wine is produced in the commune of Meursault in Côte de Beaune of Burgundy wine, Burgundy. The ''Appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) Meursault may be used for white wine and red wine, red with respectively Chardonnay and Pinot noi ...

, white wine production dominates, and Volnay is more famous than Meursault for red wine, so from a marketing point of view, the designation Volnay-Santenots is logical to use for the red wines. The "Santenots" part is not mandatory; wines from these vineyards may simply be called Volnay or Volnay Premier Cru.

References

{{reflist Burgundy (historical region) AOCs