2017 Volnay Clos des Ducs 1. Cru Marquis d'Angerville

This superb 2.15ha monopole, located on white clay soils just behind the winery and high on the slopes above Volnay, has made one of the great wines of the vintage in 2017. It's powerful, structured and complex, with layers of red cherry, raspberry and pomegranate fruit, sinewy tannins and pools of concentration. A stylishly oaked wine that's long, mineral and satisfying.

The 2017 Volnay Clos des Ducs 1er Cru is the famous crown jewel monopole of the domaine, ostensibly the rear garden with its own spring. Initially it is showing some reduction on the nose, although it dissipates with aeration. It is certainly reticent at the moment. The palate is medium-bodied with a gentle grip on the entry. It provides that arching structure that defines this vineyard and gives it its longevity, yet paradoxically the mouth sensation is supple and smooth, with just a touch of spice tingling on the finish. Noble, and aristocratic - just how a Clos des Ducs ought to be.

The 2017 Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs is the most incipiently complex wine in the cellar this year, unfurling in the glass with aromas of sweet red berries, grilled squab, dark chocolate and spices, as well as a lifted top-note of rose petal. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, satiny and layered, with good concentration at the core, a fine-grained but elegantly firm chassis of tannin and a long, mineral finish.

Medium deep purple, but this is very reductive on the nose. Tight and tense on the palate and of course the reduction toughens the finish, but there is a wealth of high-class fruit in the middle which cannot be held back. All in a classy fresh raspberry style. I have given a wide bracket of scores in order to take the reduction into account - I have every confidence this will merit the top end of the range in due course. Tasted: November 2018.