Wine Advocate: 90-92 Points
The 2019 Volnay Saint François is superb mingling notes of cherries raspberries and cassis with nuances of rose petals dark chocolate baking spice and violets. Medium to full-bodied bright and mineral it's deep and layered with a vibrant elegantly enveloping core of fruit. This cuvée is a blend derived from Roblet's holdings in Sur Roches Famines Buttes and Pasquiers. My tasting with Pascal Roblet was one of my most stimulating visits on the Côte de Beaune this year so it is with some consternation that I see that this nine-hectare domaine based in Bligny-lès-Beaune hasn't been covered in these pages for over a decade. Certified organic Roblet is a viticultural pioneer: in 2002 just two years after Lalou Bize-Leroy he stopped "rognage" (i.e. trimming) of his vines to avoid cutting their apical shoots; in his holdings in the Hautes-Côtes where lower planting densities and higher-trained vines permit it he works in permaculture. Once considered eccentric?and indeed still at odds with the dominant approach to viticulture which sometimes seems to owe more to 18th-century geometric garden design than to any understanding of vines' physiology?Burgundy has at last evolved enough for such initiatives to be thought avant grade (even if at this address they have been in place for the better part of two decades). If work in the vineyards is forward-thinking winemaking is founded on very traditional principles: long cuvaisons and long élevage. Destemming or not depending on the vintage and cuvée Roblet works only with pigeage doing nothing for the first two weeks of cuvaison and punching down for the following two. In the cellar élevage lasts between 18 and 24 months and the presence of new oak these days is minimal?one of the most notable evolutions since this domaine was last reviewed in The Wine Advocate?with Roblet increasingly favoring 400-liter barrels in lieu of 228-liter pièces. The results are superb: deep concentrated and complex wines with considerable aging potential built around beautifully powdery tannins. Quite why this high-quality domaine languishes in comparative obscurity escapes me; but when the wines are this good it is only a matter of time until people start paying attention so I encourage readers to acquaint themselves with Domaine Roblet-Monnot while they still can. Published: Jan 14 2021
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