Volnay, Burgundy
Régis Rossignol-Changarnier
Wines
Régis Rossignol-Changarnier, the grandfather of Burgundy, worked his first vintage 1950(!) and 2018 will be his 68th. After 16 years of apprenticeship under his father, Régis took over the domaine, this was then 1966. Today it is still Régis making the wines. During all these years he has not deviated from the traditions handed down to him by his father – keeping these wines shining examples of classic, traditional Burgundy.
The domaine works 7,2 hectares. Vineyards are located in the communes of Volnay, Pommard, Beaune, Savigny-les-Beaune and Meursault. Production of reds dominate but a little bit of white Meursault and Aligtoté is also made. As far as can be remembered synthetic sprays, herbicide and pesticides have been avoided and ploughing has always been a tedious work to be carried out. Controlling the yields and keeping them low, 25-40 hl/ha, is a very important factor in wine quality here, green harvest is therefore carried out. Grapes are carefully harvested by hand to later ferment with a high portion of whole bunches, fermentation is carried out by ambient yeasts in concrete vats, maceration for about 12 days and cap management is done by feet. Not a single oenological product has ever been in this cellar. Wines are aged in barrel, maximum 20 % new but is usually much lower, for 13 months before bottling. Wines are lightly or none-filtered.
Producing wines in this tradition gives a lot of structure so before making the wines available to the market they are kept in their own cellar for a minimum of 3 years. With that being said, these wines have great ageing potential. We have tried wines from the early 80s that are just singing being so vibrant. These are not trendy wines, these are timeless wines. These wines are what you imagine that the wines coming out from the 50’s and 60’s would taste like. The wines from Régis Rossignol-Changarnier are historical, soulful and full of character – unique for this day and age.
After an amazing career Regis retired and the vintage of 2020 was his last one.