Domaine Michel Lafarge
The Grace of Volnay
Clos des Chenes - Chateau des Ducs - Caillerets
"For an example of the finest red Burgundy that is fragrant and feminine, yet intense and long-lasting, you need look no further than the wines of Domaine Michel Lafarge."
- Clive Coates
Volnay is one of our favorite villages in Burgundy.
There is little pomp and circumstance in Volnay; it is a small, serious town and in nearly every house there seems to be a winemaker, and nearly every winemaker is in their vineyards, a lot.
The village can be overlooked because it is not huddled among the more celebrated haunts of the Côte de Nuits (Gevrey-Chambertin, Chambolle-Musigny, Vosne-Romanée), and is without its own Grand Cru site(s) with which to concoct a "Grander" village name (Volnay-Clos-des-Chênes-Caillerets anyone?). Yet for these very same reasons, Volnay is rife with great wines that are great values.
Today's offer is a labor of love, a small offering of one of Volnay's finest - Domaine Michel Lafarge - from top vintages, at incredibly sharp prices. See below for the full list with reviews.
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Michel Lafarge and his son Frédéric have been making the wine at their smaller family estate for well over 30 years. The signature at Lafarge is as it has been - father and son are rarely moved by the precocious whims of winemaking fashion. These are wines of incredible delicacy and grace, only Chambolle can match the silken palate, their ethereal movement and finesse. If Angerville is the heartiest of Volnay, castles constructed of stone, Lafarge's Volnays are more gossamer, more vivid and dynamic. They have a bright red-fruit tone, incredible purity and in vintages like 2002 and 2006, beautiful transparency. The Lafarge's are also masters of tannins, few wines show such polish, such cutting definition.
Read the notes below - nearly every bottle included in this offering is tiny, delicate and detailed ... but also a superstar in its own right (at prices well below the better marketed superstars). It's always fun to read the Burghound getting palpably excited by a certain domaine's wines; you can sense a very fresh and honest enthusiasm from him in these notes - as if he's trying to contain himself, just so he doesn't give away too much!
We're only offering these great bottlings to our Volnay and Burgundy supporters - quantities are just too limited. We have less than a few cases of each individual wine (and in some instances less than a case!) so all orders will be subject to confirmation.
To order, please emails us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Ian McFadden
Director of Fine & Rare Wine
Crush Wine & Spirits
2006 Volnay 1er Clos des ChĂŞnes
Compare at up to $150+
Burghound: "Here the aromas are equally ripe with an earthier and more deeply pitched aromatic profile that serves up a strikingly pretty array of red raspberry and currant, plum and violets that introduces, rich, full and more powerful flavors that possess a gorgeous mouth feel and ample mid-palate concentration that buffers the most prominent tannins on the driving, energetic and explosive finish. As it usually is, this is the best in show in 2006."
2006 Volnay 1er Clos du Château des Ducs
Compare at up to $144+
Burghound: "A mix of ultra pure red pinot fruit and slightly darker fruits that include notes of plum, dark raspberry and currant merges into rich, cool and dusty mouth coating flavors that possess lovely depth and near perfect balance on the persistent and beautifully detailed finish where a subtle mineral streak surfaces. Lovely juice that is perhaps a bit more powerful than usual."
2005 Volnay 1er Caillerets
Compare at $199
Burghound: "This is more aromatically complex still with ethereal notes of red and black fruit, floral notes, particularly violets and subtle spice and earth hints trimmed in a discreet bit of wood where all of this aromatic firepower precedes the rich, generous and impressively refined flavors that possess superb depth of extract that buffers the firm tannins on the structured, powerful and hugely long, indeed explosive finish. A 'wow' wine.""
2002 Volnay 1er Clos du Château des Ducs
Burghound: "A backward and reserved nose of high-toned and ultra elegant red pinot fruit and crushed raspberry aromas nuanced with subtle earth and dried herb notes gives way to precise, pure and wonderfully detailed flavors blessed with genuinely remarkable length. A classic Volnay in style and character and I very much like this, in particular the subtle, almost delicate finishing minerality. A wine of subtlety and understatement that is great just the same."
2002 Pommard 1er PĂ©zerolles
Compare at $125
Burghound: "Very high-toned red fruit that has a distinct mineral component to it is followed by textured, supple and dusty flavors of very impressive depth and length. There is the solid structure of Pommard present but it's fine and sophisticated, not rustic and hard. A great effort and as good a young Lafarge PĂ©z as I can remember."
Net / No Further Discounts