2005 Volnay Vendanges Selectionees

Saturated dark red with ruby highlights. Black fruit aromas show an almost liqueur-like ripeness. Deep flavors of dark berries and violet, given excellent cut by firm acidity. A serious, youthfully tight wine with a solid tannic spine. I'd give this a good eight years in the cellar. As good a vintage for this cuvee as I can recall.

This blend is a selection of their best parcels together with Premier Cru vines under 25 years old. Shyer nose than the regular Volnay. Fresh, bold – quite dramatic and meaty. The wine needs much more time and the tannins are still quite tough but it’s certainly convincing for the long term. (JR)

From four parcels proximate in geography and potential quality to their uphill, premier cru neighbors comes the Lafarge 2005 Volnay Vendanges Selectionnees. Deeper, darker and denser in color, structure and flavor than the “regular” Volnay at this address (and as such more typical of this vintage), this offers generous black cherry and plum with tart fruit skin and bitter fruit pit adjuncts. A rich meatiness puts one in mind a bit of Pommard (not surprising given that two of the vineyards incorporated into this bottling lie on the communal line), as does this wine’s firm tannic backbone. Wet stone and humus notes add complexity to the persistently bright fruit and rich meatiness of an almost severely-concentrated finish that introduces a somewhat detracting and hopefully temporary blocking note of bitterness. Certainly the “regular” village wine is more fun to drink today. The entire Lafarge collection was predictably still in barrel when I visited in February, with even the generic cuvees due for assembly only in March. Speaking of generic bottlings, I don’t know of another domaine that has three of them, and I certainly doubt that there is one with three routinely worthy of attention even by those with the disposable income to afford premier crus. A Becky Wassserman Selection (various importers), Le Serbet, Beaune; fax 011-33-3-80-24-29-70