Comtes Lafon Volnay 1er cru Santenots-du-Milieu 2015

93-97 points Fine Wine Review: "The Santenots is powerful and deep with dark and red fruits, excellent length, and balance. The texture is velvet. This wine shows the great potential of this oft-misunderstood vineyard. (4/13/17)"

92-95 points/'Sweet spot/Outstanding,' Allen Meadows (Burghound): "(from 40+ year old vines planted in shallow, high clay content soil sitting on a bed of solid rock). This is also brilliantly spicy with its ultra-pure and pretty essence of black raspberry, floral and warm-earth suffused aromas. Like the Champans there is excellent underlying tension supporting the broad-shouldered flavors that are even more mineral-driven on the muscular, taut and driving finish. This wine always ages well and typically needs quite a bit of it and this terrific effort will be no exception. This could well rival the 1999, 2005 and 2010 versions in time. Drink: 2030+. (Apr 2017)"

94 points John Gilman (View From the Cellar): "The 2015 Santenots du Milieu from Comtes Lafon is another absolutely stellar young bottle of Volnay. The bouquet is pure, focused and utterly classic in its mix of black cherries, cassis, dark chocolate, gamebird, a complex base of dark soil tones, woodsmoke, cedar and a pungent topnote of violets. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and rock solid at the core, with great transparency, fine-grained tannins, excellent acids and a very long, complex and perfectly balanced finish. Classic juice that may well rival wines from this vineyard such as the 1978, 1989, 1993 and 1999 here in the fullness of time. 2022-2060. (Nov/Dec 2016)"

94 points Tim Atkin, MW: "Dominique Lafon’s most famous red comes from a 3.9-hectare red wine vineyard in the commune of Meursault. It’s a dense, focused, concentrated Volnay with muscular tannins, compact, low yielding plum and blueberry fruit and undertones of mint and minerality. 2022-30. (Jan 2017)"

94 points William Kelley (Decanter): "A pure and still primary bouquet of cassis, raspberry, woodsmoke and espresso leads into a deep, concentrated palate with a firm core of tannin and acidity. It will need a good deacde to truly blossom in the cellar, and ideally longer. Drinking Window: 2028-2060. (Jan 2017)"

93+ points William Kelley (Wine Advocate): "Tasted blind, the 2015 Volnay 1er Cru Les Santenots-du-Milieu offers up a deep bouquet of red-black cherries, spices, potpourri, espresso roast and subtle grilled meat. Full-bodied, ample and sappy on the palate, it's rich but vibrant, with fine-grained structuring tannins that are beginning to assert themselves on the finish. Having drunk several bottles of this wine since release, the extent to which it's shutting down is clearly apparent, and at this stage, patience will be required. Drink: 2025-2045. (Oct 2018)"

93 points Jasper Morris (Inside Burgundy): "DIAM 30 Medium deep red, a little reduction on the nose., lovely weight of fruit behind. Balanced pure and long and when the reduction disappears this will be first rate. It has the longest finish of the flight."

93 points Neal Martin (Vinous): "The 2015 Volnay Santenots-du-Milieu 1er Cru has a lovely ripe blackberry, raspberry and undergrowth-scented bouquet that opens nicely with aeration, shaking off just a touch of reduction. The palate is well balanced with sappy red fruit, gentle grip and crisp acidity. There is just a slight veneer of new oak toward the finish that will inevitably be subsumed within the next few months. This is a very classy offering. Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting. Drink: 2021-2038. (Nov 2018)"