2010 Volnay Champans

The 2010 Volnay Champans bursts from the glass with freshly cut flowers, mint, spices, licorice and sweet red berries. Floral notes are woven throughout this impeccably layered, intense wine. I tasted the Champans from a number of barrels, all of which were exceptional, both for their immediate quality and more importantly for the future.

(final blend): Saturated ruby-red. Distinctly dark aromas of wild black cherry, bitter chocolate, cardamom and earth. Silky-smooth but with lovely detail to the very intense black cherry, black raspberry and mineral flavors. Shows a tightly coiled spring today, and has the acid/tannin spine to be a long ager. Became increasingly stony with air.

The 2010 Volnay Champans bursts from the glass with freshly cut flowers, mint, spices, licorice and sweet red berries. Floral notes are woven throughout this impeccably layered, intense wine. I tasted the Champans from a number of barrels, all of which were exceptional, both for their immediate quality and more importantly for the future. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2030. There are two recurring themes every time I taste with Dominique Lafon; this is always one of the top visits in Burgundy, and there never seems to be enough time to explore all of the nuances in each of these wines. Lafon was fortunate to escape the vintage with just 20% lower yields than 2009, which here translates to 32 hectoliters per hectare as compared to 35 in a normal year and 40 in an abundant year. The malos were very, very slow. In fact, there were a few barrels still finishing their malos in early December, 2011. The 2009 reds have also turned out beautifully. I will report on those wines in the April issue. Importers: Classic Wine Imports, Norwood, MA, tel. (781) 352 1100; Beaune Imports, Berkeley, CA, tel. (510) 559 1040; A Daniel Johnnes Selection imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY, tel. (516) 677 9300