2007 Volnay Clos des Chenes

The Lafarges’ 2007 Volnay Clos Du Chateau Des Ducs displays scents of peat, smoky black tea, and dark cherry. Unusually rich and sumptuous for its vintage – and thus at a sort of opposite extreme from the corresponding Mitans – it evinces underlying richness of chocolate, along with countervailing chalk and cherry pit. There is a broth-like sense of meat reduction and fine-grained tannin buried here as well, and more than enough sense of energy and primary juiciness incorporated in its long finish. I wonder whether this might not prove continuously appealing over the next 7-10 years, though perhaps it will even go through a phase where it requires some patient waiting. Frederic and Michel Lafarge are understandably enthusiastic about their admittedly millerandage-, hail-, and triage-reduced 2008 crop, but insisted that rot was not a significant problem. And even the hail, they report, was minimal in their portions of Clos des Chenes and Caillerets, being largely confined to certain village and generic sectors. All of the 2008s here (even of minor appellation) were still in barrel when I tasted them in March, and would, as usual at this address, be assembled only immediately before bottling. Malos were late here by the estate’s normal standards, but still largely finished by August, and the Lafarges insist that they did not have musts with unusually high levels of malic acidity, in regard to which Frederic observes that a matter of just a few days in picking date in 2008 could make a big chemical difference. Michel Lafarge opines that one needs several months after malo to let a young red Burgundy collect and express itself before one ought even to contemplate bottling, in light of which he cannot comprehend – much less agree with – the many growers who bottled 2008s during the winter. He also emphatically resists the suggestion that 2008 is, in any sense, a throwback to the old normalcy – a subject on which Michel Lafarge has to be one of Burgundy’s most seasoned experts – pointing out that there wasn’t really any need to chaptalize the 2008s, which came in largely in the upper 12s. (Alcohol levels were slightly higher in the impressive 2007s, nearly all of which were picked the first week in September.) A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet (various importers), fax 011-33-3-80-24-29-70

Medium red. Red fruits, violet, licorice and herbs on the nose. Fat and sweet in the middle, with enticing cherry and raspberry flavors complicated by chocolate and truffle. Not quite as sharply defined today as the Caillerets or Ch a teau des Ducs. Turns more serious on the back end, finishing broad and classically dry, with substantial dusty tannins.

Good medium red. Pure, spicy aromas of red fruits, mint and minerals; reserved but complex. Quite suave and pure if a bit youthfully unforthcoming, with underlying minerality providing lift. Best today on the very long, spicy, soil-driven finish, which boasts terrific precision and really stimulates the taste buds.