This is also beautifully complex with its broad-ranging nose of red currant, pomegranate, earth, floral and spice-suffused aromas. As is usually the case this is both bigger and more powerful if not quite as elegant with a similar level of mid-palate concentration where the copious dry extract does a fine job of buffering the very firm tannic spine on the explosively long and muscular finish. This brilliant effort always ages extremely well and in 2014 it´s yet again clear that it will need plenty of cellar time.

Score: 92-94 Allen Meadow (AM), Bourghound (BH), April 2016

Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2014 tasting, the 2014 Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Chênes offers a clutch of wonderful aromatics: very pure red cherry, cranberry and strawberry scents with an underlying mineral seam that bursts through with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, a crisp line of acidity and impressive salinity, and it is one of the few Volnays, at least in this particular flight, to show a persistent aftertaste. What a wonderful wine from l´equipe Lafarge. Tasted September 2017.

Score: 93 Neal Martin (NM), The Wine Advocate (WA), November 2017

(15% new oak): Medium red. Reticent, slightly musky nose offers redcurrant and cherry aromas complicated by mocha, earth, spices and pepper; not exactly high-pitched but much more vibrant than the Volnay villages. Can´t quite match the 2015 version for purity, but this wine boasts penetrating redcurrant sweetness with good acid cut and complicating salty minerality. Finishes with substantial granular tannins that shorten the finish a bit today. Left behind some decadent cinnamon and musky oak notes in the empty glass. This should gain in texture and complexity with bottle age but I miss the floral lift it displayed from barrel.

Score: 90 Stephen Tanzer (ST), Vinous Media (VM), March 2017