Domaine Michel Lafarge Clos des Chenes, Volnay Premier Cru, France

拉法熱莊園橡木園（沃爾奈一級園）紅葡萄酒

點擊次數：19350

Tasted at the Clos des Chênes vertical in London, the 1996 Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Chênes is one of the more successful wines of what turned out to be an unpredictable vintage. Now approaching two decades in age, it has come into its own with an exuberant bouquet: wild raspberry, scorched earth, red plum and cold limestone scents that all leap from the glass whilw maintaining their delineation. The palate is medium-bodied, fresh and linear - "correct" you might say and yet with disarming focus and vigor. It segues into a masculine, tobacco finish that echoes the Médoc in a strange way, and one is left with the overall impression that this 1996 could benefit from further bottle age. What an excellent wine from Michel and Frédéric Lafarge. Tasted November 2015.

The dark ruby/purple-colored Volnay Clos Des Chenes bowled me over with its highly-expressive, profound, and complex aromas of plums, violets, blackberries, dark cherries, and Asian spices. This powerful, intense, muscular (yet refined!), deeply rich, and enthralling offering captivates the palate. I had the distinct feeling that this wine was only showing me what it wanted to display - more was in reserve and would be only be revealed when it chose to. It is compelling, concentrated, intricate, broad-shouldered, and jam-packed with blueberries, blackberries, red cherries, hints of new oak, and traces of wild game. This outstanding wine has an spectacularly long and lingering finish in which can be discerned copious quantities of ripe tannins drenched in fat and juicy fruits. Wow! Anticipated maturity: 2003-2010.The score, on a range and in parentheses, indicates that the wine was tasted from barrel.Michel Lafarge and his son Frederic have produced, once again, a fabulous line-up of wines. My only regret, and one that I know is shared by many readers, is that these wines are extremely difficult to locate. My local wine shop, staffed by admirers of Lafarge's wines, sold out of the 1996s the date they bought them as futures (no, no one thought of calling me).Whereas Volnay producers averaged close to 47 hectoliters/hectare in 1996, the Lafarges (who finish each other's sentences the way only two people who have lived and worked together for decades could) say their yields were 35 h/h for village wines, and 30 h/h for premier crus. Even so (low yields promote earlier ripening), they waited "for a few days after the ban de vendange (the first day that vignerons are allowed to harvest)" before sending out their harvesting teams. The 1996s took a great deal of time to finish their malo-lactic fermentations, but according to the Lafarges, the malos "were calm, they did not tire the wines." These offerings will be bottled unfiltered in April/May, 1998 (with the exception of the Passe-Tout-Grain and Bourgogne which were already assembled for bottling when I visited the estate in November, 1997).The Lafarge style is, as I wrote in Issue # 112, supple, precise, and succulent, all three also characteristics of the 1996 vintage. Michel and Frederic Lafarge's magical touch, combined with the pure and juicy 1996 vintage, created a cellar full of beauties.A Becky Wasserman Selection, French Fax # 011-33-3-80-24-29-70, various American importers, including Esquin Imports, San Francisco, CA; tel (415) 398-1200, Martin-Scott, Lake Success, NY; tel (516) 327-0808.