2010 Volnay Clos des Ducs

The 2010 Volnay Clos des Ducs 1er Cru is just a joy from start to finish. It has an alluring, open and crystalline bouquet that blossoms in the glass, vivacious red fruit, touches of damp undergrowth and spellbinding mineralité . Touches of shucked oyster shells develop with time. The palate is beautifully balanced with more depth on the mid-palate than either the Champans and Taillepieds 2010 tasted alongside. It possesses the backbone you expect from a Clos des Ducs with a touch of sour cherry lending race on the sustained finish. Wonderful. Tasted at the Marquis d'Angerville tasting in London.

Good medium red. Captivating aromas of black cherry, dark raspberry, minerals and flowers have shed the reductive character that made this wine difficult to taste shortly after the bottling. Juicy, penetrating and wonderfully elegant, delivering outstanding flavor intensity without any impression of heaviness. Red berry, red cherry and flowers dominate the middle palate, with an element of saline minerality expanding with air. Really stains the palate and titillates the salivary glands on the very long, rising finish. This wine is so well-balanced that it's delicious right now, but it has the solidity, sappiness and tannic structure for a slow and graceful evolution in the cellar. A transcendent premier cru. (14.1% alcohol; September 23 harvest; 3.5 pH; a major attack of oidium in Clos des Ducs in August resulted in a crop level of just 19 hectoliters per hectare, according to Angerville, who noted that the younger vines in the upper part of the vineyard were particularly affected)

Oidium (powdery mildew) in August; one upper parcel of younger vines was not treated properly. Made only 19–20 hl/ha (cf around 40 hl/ha in 2009 and 2005). The worst losses to oidium in Guillame d’Angerville’s tenure. And very high prices as a result! Harvest 23 September, pH 3.5. Transparent ruby. Light nose – less exuberant than the 2012. Very fine and delicate on the palate. Long and builds to a pretty magnificent crescendo but this bottle is definitely a little muted on the nose. Wholly admirable but holds itself above the need to charm. Tannins smothered by the fruit. Just a tad austere at the moment but very typical. (JR)