2015 - Volnay 1er Cru Les Caillerets, Nicolas Rossignol

(entirely destemmed): Healthy medium-deep red. Knockout soil-inflected aromas of red cherry, raspberry, dried flowers, spices and underbrush. Wonderfully refined and energetic on the palate, with its fresh, sharply delineated red fruit and earth flavors boasting terrific inner-mouth tension and class--not to mention delicacy--for the vintage. Not as thick as some of these '16s, this still-tight beauty opens out on the back end like a peacock's tail, leaving the salivary glands humming. Ten years will be just the beginning of the game for this wine, offered Rossignol.

The 2015 Volnay 1er Cru Caillerets is a blend of 40- and 80-year-old vineyards and was completely de-stemmed this year; it has an opulent and extravagant bouquet with marmalade and orange sorbet notes suffusing the kirsch, cassis and black cherry scents. I would prefer to see a little more restraint here. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent ripe red fruit, touches of dark chocolate and savory notes developing towards the second half that will need a couple of years to fully absorb the 30% new oak. I would just like to feel the terroir more here.

Cask sample. Redcurrant, cranberry, violet and a surprisingly yielding structure on the palate. Loads of fruit intensity throughout the palate and on the finish. Impeccably balanced but without the flavour range of their Pommards, I find. Yet there's no question it has the capacity to age well. (RH)