2009 Domaine des Comtes Lafon, Volnay Premier Cru, Les Santenots du Milieu

Lafon’s 2009 Volnay Santenots boasts extraordinary polish and sheer class. Crushed flowers, licorice, red berries and minerals are all woven together in a fabric of notable refinement. The Santenots is quite rich, but also refined as it literally floats on the palate. This is a dazzling showing from Dominique Lafon. Anticipated maturity: 2019-2039. Importers: Classic Wine Imports, Norwood, MA, tel. (781) 352 1100; Beaune Imports, Berkeley, CA, tel. (510) 559 1040; A Daniel Johnnes Selection imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY, tel. (516) 677 9300

(aged in 35% new oak): Good deep red-ruby. Black plum, black cherry and chocolate on the nose. Superrich and sweet; a real fruit bomb of dark cherry and raspberry, but a firm spine of acids and tannins keeps it lively on the palate. Complicating notes of licorice, bitter chocolate and flowers. The almost glyceral impression of sweetness comes from fully ripe fruit and the wine's 13.5% alcohol, notes Lafon. Deceptively open-knit today owing to its sheer richness. This was bottled in March of 2011, the other 2009s in January and February.