Volnay Santenots du Milieu, Domaine des Comtes Lafon 2020

The 2020 Volnay 1er Cru Les Santenots-du-Milieu is excellent, wafting from the glass with a deep bouquet of wild berries, plums and cassis mingled with hints of spices, grilled meats and rose petals. Medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it's deep and tightly wound, with powdery structuring tannins and lively acids. This is a serious Santenots that will require some bottle age, and it's among the best that I can remember tasting chez Lafon over the last decade.

Note: from a huge 3.78 ha holding of 40+ year old vines planted in shallow, high clay content soil sitting above a bed of solid limestone
A mentholated top note is present on the ripe but fresh aromas of poached plum, black raspberry coulis and pretty spice nuances like those found in jasmine tea. The sleek and markedly intense big-bodied and concentrated flavors retain a lovely sense of detail on the lingering, textured, stony and powerful finale. As is usually the case, this is the best of the Lafon reds though in 2020, it appears to barely best the Champans.