2005 Volnay Clos des Santenots

From yet another Prieur monopole, the 2005 Volnay Clos des Santenots displays ravishingly intense aromas and flavors of black raspberry and cassis, with dark chocolate, wet stone, graphite, chalk, and salts lending layers of complexity. A bit tannic and marked by toasty barrels in the finish, this might turn out to taste overdone in its sweetness for some tastes, but certainly there is ample mineral complexity. Nearly all bottlings from this negociant – on an upward path since the influx of Rodet capital in the early ‘90s – in fact originate in the Domaine Jacques Prieur. Martin Prieur and his team have striven to capture purity of fruit through gentle extraction, although for my taste I found some of their 2005s overly confectionary due to the influence of toasty new wood on already very sweetly ripe raw material. After malo – which was generally quite late here this year – the wines were sulfured but not yet racked. Importer: Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York, NY; tel. (212) 355-0700.