2014 Volnay Clos des Ducs 1. Cru Marquis d'Angerville

This offers cherry and currant flavors, with hints of violet, black pepper and spice, underlined by a beam of tannins. Still austere and rigid on the finish, yet with excellent concentration and length. Best from 2022 through 2036. 150 cases imported.-B.S.

The signature wine of this leading Volnay estate comes from a 2.15 hectare monopole of 40-year-old vines, high on the slope above the village. Fresh, sappy and almost crystalline on the palate, it's a red of enormous purity and focus with fine-grained tannins and remarkable balance. Volnay's best red in 2014. 2018-30 .

The 2014 Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs has a very complex and introverted, but captivating bouquet that draws you in, full of blackberry, briary, cold limestone and just a hint of baking powder in the background lending sweetness. The palate is sensual on the entry. There is roundness and depth here, coupled with very good substance, a hint of white pepper perhaps, and as always, with immense precision on the finish. There is nothing flamboyant here -- just a very aristocratic Volnay for long term aging.

Classic ruby color. The understated nose only grudgingly reveals cool and ultra-pure aromas of violet, herbal tea, spice and a broad mélange of wild red berries. There is a really lovely vibrancy to the superbly well-detailed medium weight flavors that are intensely stony with a sleek and polished palate feel that carries over to the impeccably well-balanced, hugely persistent and youthfully austere finale. This is sufficiently supple that it should drink well on the younger side but if you wish to experience it at its peak, it will be necessary to have at least some patience. /2026+

Medium red, the lightest of these 2014s. Reticent but highly nuanced nose offers aromas of redcurrant, dark raspberry, milk chocolate, earth and animal fur, plus a riper suggestion of prune (this fruit was picked at 13% potential alcohol). Wonderfully silky and ripe; large-scaled and round for 2014 but not at all heavy. Not as primary as the extraordinary 2015 but the wine's wonderfully refined, thoroughly ripe, late-arriving tannins will require considerable patience.