The 2019 Volnay 1er Cru Les Champans offers up aromas of red berries, plums, warm spices and wilted rose petals. Medium to full-bodied, lively and unusually charming for a young wine from this site, its pretty core of fruit is framed by supple, melting tannins and bright animating acids.

The 2018 Volnay 1er Cru Les Champans is muscular and more introverted than the series of Beaune premiers crus that proceeded it, unwinding with a deep-pitched bouquet of cassis, smoked meats and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, firm and muscular, the raw materials are promising, but the wine was a little inscrutable.

The 2017 Volnay 1er Cru Champans displays notions of red cherries, potpourri, dried herbs and rich soil tones. On the palate, the wine is medium-bodied, fine-boned and tensile, and while it's somewhat austere in profile its tannins are nicely integrated. It will likely flesh out with further élevage and time in bottle.

The 2016 Volnay 1er Cru Champans suffered frost damage on the lower reaches and 50% damage on the mid-slope of the vineyard. It includes one-third whole cluster and matured in 30% new oak. It has a surprisingly broody and more introverted bouquet than recent vintages, defined but certainly holding everything back. The palate is well structured but bullish and rustic, quite rough tannin at the moment, a broad shouldered and square-jawed Volnay that will require several years in bottle.

The 2015 Volnay 1er Cru Champans has a very pure, very attractive bouquet with mineral-tinged red cherry and cranberry fruit that is equidistant in style between Pommard and Volnay. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin. I love the tension here, that nascent energy and salinity towards the finish that actually does veer towards Pommard in terms of structure. Excellent.