1996 Volnay Clos des Ducs
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Tasting notes
(opened from personal storage). A gorgeously perfumed nose is still fresh with dark berry fruit and earth aromas that display plenty of secondary character (though no sous-bois). There is lovely detail and punch to the medium weight flavors that offer better concentration than the average '96, all underpinned by excellent length where the finish exhibits a hint of dryness that is just enough to detract from the overall sense of balance. The supporting structure has largely, if not completely, resolved and the usual bright '96 style acidity is present though not to excess. For my taste this has arrived at its peak though it should hold here for a long time to come. Tasted thrice since 2017 with spot on notes and another where the nose had a distinct old leather character that was neither barnyard nor brett but either way, it wasn't perfumed.
Critic scores
Average Score
Pierre Rovani
Allen Meadows, Burghound
More reviews and scores
The Volnay Clos Du Chateau Des Ducs is medium-to-dark ruby-colored and offers a delightful nose of plums, roses, violets, and red cherries. It is oily-textured, medium-to-full-bodied, elegant, hedonistically plump and fat (what the French call gras), and filled with layers of creamy cherries. This wine is an amalgamation of sultriness and refinement, almost as if it were a vinous cross of Raquel Welch and Audrey Hepburn. Its persistent finish coats the mouth with loads of sweet fruits and super-supple tannins. It should be at its peak between 2002 and 2007. The score, on a range and in parentheses, indicates that the wine was tasted from barrel. Michel Lafarge and his son Frederic have produced, once again, a fabulous line-up of wines. My only regret, and one that I know is shared by many readers, is that these wines are extremely difficult to locate. My local wine shop, staffed by admirers of Lafarge's wines, sold out of the 1996s the date they bought them as futures (no, no one thought of calling me). Whereas Volnay producers averaged close to 47 hectoliters/hectare in 1996, the Lafarges (who finish each other's sentences the way only two people who have lived and worked together for decades could) say their yields were 35 h/h for village wines, and 30 h/h for premier crus. Even so (low yields promote earlier ripening), they waited "for a few days after the ban de vendange (the first day that vignerons are allowed to harvest)" before sending out their harvesting teams. The 1996s took a great deal of time to finish their malo-lactic fermentations, but according to the Lafarges, the malos "were calm, they did not tire the wines." These offerings will be bottled unfiltered in April/May, 1998 (with the exception of the Passe-Tout-Grain and Bourgogne which were already assembled for bottling when I visited the estate in November, 1997). The Lafarge style is, as I wrote in Issue # 112, supple, precise, and succulent, all three also characteristics of the 1996 vintage. Michel and Frederic Lafarge's magical touch, combined with the pure and juicy 1996 vintage, created a cellar full of beauties. A Becky Wasserman Selection, French Fax # 011-33-3-80-24-29-70, various American importers, including Esquin Imports, San Francisco, CA; tel (415) 398-1200, Martin-Scott, Lake Success, NY; tel (516) 327-0808.
The Volnay Clos Du Chateau Des Ducs is medium-to-dark ruby-colored and offers a delightful nose of plums, roses, violets, and red cherries. It is oily-textured, medium-to-full-bodied, elegant, hedonistically plump and fat (what the French call gras), and filled with layers of creamy cherries. This wine is an amalgamation of sultriness and refinement, almost as if it were a vinous cross of Raquel Welch and Audrey Hepburn. Its persistent finish coats the mouth with loads of sweet fruits and super-supple tannins. It should be at its peak between 2002 and 2007. The score, on a range and in parentheses, indicates that the wine was tasted from barrel.||Michel Lafarge and his son Frederic have produced, once again, a fabulous line-up of wines. My only regret, and one that I know is shared by many readers, is that these wines are extremely difficult to locate. My local wine shop, staffed by admirers of Lafarge's wines, sold out of the 1996s the date they bought them as futures (no, no one thought of calling me).||Whereas Volnay producers averaged close to 47 hectoliters/hectare in 1996, the Lafarges (who finish each other's sentences the way only two people who have lived and worked together for decades could) say their yields were 35 h/h for village wines, and 30 h/h for premier crus. Even so (low yields promote earlier ripening), they waited "for a few days after the ban de vendange (the first day that vignerons are allowed to harvest)" before sending out their harvesting teams. The 1996s took a great deal of time to finish their malo-lactic fermentations, but according to the Lafarges, the malos "were calm, they did not tire the wines." These offerings will be bottled unfiltered in April/May, 1998 (with the exception of the Passe-Tout-Grain and Bourgogne which were already assembled for bottling when I visited the estate in November, 1997).||The Lafarge style is, as I wrote in Issue # 112, supple, precise, and succulent, all three also characteristics of the 1996 vintage. Michel and Frederic Lafarge's magical touch, combined with the pure and juicy 1996 vintage, created a cellar full of beauties.||A Becky Wasserman Selection, French Fax # 011-33-3-80-24-29-70, various American importers, including Esquin Imports, San Francisco, CA; tel (415) 398-1200, Martin-Scott, Lake Success, NY; tel (516) 327-0808. Wine Advocate.April, 1998