Volnay with Jasper Morris MW

67 Pall Mall
Tasted Monday, February 24, 2020 by NickA with 207 views

Introduction

A tasting of 12 1er cru Volnays from better (and mostly warmer) recent vintages.

Wines 1-7 are monopoles.

Flight 1 (2 Notes)

Flight 2 (2 Notes)

Flight 3 (2 Notes)

  • 2009 Domaine Michel Lafarge Volnay 1er Cru Clos du Château des Ducs 92 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru

    Classy stuff. Starting to look pretty mature. A lovely complex nose, with an indefinable melange of red fruits. Elegant, balanced and quite savoury, its freshness belies the warm vintage. Very long finish. All coming together nicely; this site matures earlier than the Clos des Chenes.

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  • 2009 Benjamin Leroux Volnay 1er Cru Clos de la Cave des Ducs 90 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru

    This site is a little further up the hill, and thus the wine has sufficient freshness and acidity to compensate for the warm and sunny 2009 vintage style. There's a fair amount of Brett on this, but the fruit is deep and vital enough to make this complementary rather than offensive. Some richness coming through on the finish.

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Flight 4 (2 Notes)

Flight 5 (2 Notes)

  • 2010 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Volnay 1er Cru Santenots-Du-Milieu 93 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru

    This site is more clay than (as for most of Volnay) chalk, so tends to be less ethereal than its peers. That said, although the wine is undeniably deep, it's crisp and delineated and perfectly pretty too. Lovely acid and tannin structure from 2010 means this would be a great food wine.

    Jasper Morris comments that this is ready, but will continue to improve, and that 2010s are likely to be ahead of 2009s for the first 25 or so years of their life, following which the additional stuffing of the '09s should see them overtaking.

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  • 2009 Bouchard Père et Fils Volnay 1er Cru Caillerets Ancienne Cuvée Carnot 91 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru

    Caillerets is arguably Volnay's best vineyard. Really deep, with sweeping fruit and a big mouthfeel. Savoury and spicy, and not very subtle.

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Flight 6 (2 Notes)

  • 2009 Domaine de Montille Volnay 1er Cru Taillepieds 92 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru

    Clear whole-bunch influence: this is punchy, zesty, prickly and peppery (compared with the other wines tasted tonight - it's still not Syrah). Any herbaceousness is avoided because it's an '09. Deep and dense on the nose and on the palate, where there's a lovely chew to the obvious (but not drying) tannins. Again, seems ready but will improve.

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  • 2004 Domaine Michel Lafarge Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Chênes 90 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru

    Quite browned. Perhaps it's because this followed a long run of '09s, but this '04 feels pretty lean. There's good depth of fruit (this is Lafarge, after all), but the overall impression is a bit austere.

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Closing

My WOTN:
1 - Lafon Santenots
2 - Lafarge Clos du Chateau
3 - d'Angerville Clos des Ducs

Jasper WOTN:
1 - Lafarge Clos du Chateau
2 - Lafon Santenots
3 - de Montille Taillepieds

Group WOTN:
1 - Lafon Santenots
2 - d'Angerville Clos des Ducs
3 - Lafarge Clos du Chateau
4 - Leroux Clos de la Cave
5 - de Montille Taillepieds

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