Volnay, attractive small village in the Côte de Beaune district of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or producing elegant red wines from Pinot Noir. The wines of Volnay were celebrated under the ancien régime for their delicacy: Claude Arnoux describes them as partridge-eye pink in colour, and the finest of all the wines of the Côte de Beaune, although they had to be drunk very young. Since then they have alternated in fame with those of neighbouring Pommard depending on whether fashion dictated wines of breeding or of power.
