Lafarge Volnay 1er cru Clos du Château des Ducs 2022

95 points John Gilman (View From the Cellar): "The 2023 Clos du Château des Ducs from the Lafarge family is another absolutely stunning wine in the making! The wine’s aromatic constellation is refined, deep and precise, offering up notes of sweet cassis, black plums, bitter chocolate, gamebird, a very complex foundation of dark soil tones, woodsmoke and cedar. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, impeccably balanced and deep and sappy at the core, with great transparency down to the soil, tangy acids, ripe tannins and a very, very long, complex and elegant finish. I love this wine’s potential! 2040-2090. (Jan/Feb 2025)"

95 points Charles Curtis, MW (Decanter): "The 2023 Clos du Château des Ducs is a high point of the tasting in this cellar. It has profuse aromas of blueberry and blackberry, with copious notes of rose petal and liquorice. The aromas are complex, yet the wine remains approachable and supple – there is nothing heavy or hard here. The grapes are from just over 0.5ha of vines in the village behind the domaine. Often, the team spends an entire day destemming by hand, although this was not done in 2023, given the generous yields of the vintage. Drinking Window: 2030-2050. (10/17/24)"

95 points CellarTracker.com community score.

93-95 points Neal Martin (Vinous): "The 2023 Volnay Clos du Château des Ducs 1er Cru underwent a later malo and so had been racked just a fortnight before my visit. Despite that, it has an outstanding bouquet of beautifully defined blackcurrant and raspberry fruit laced with iris flowers. The palate was still a bit gassy, yet the fruit is very pure with a hint of licorice toward the finish. Great potential but I suspect it will require longer in bottle than Lafarge's other Premier Crus. Drink: 2029-2055. (Jan 2025)"

92-95 points/'Sweet spot/Outstanding,' Allen Meadows (Burghound): "(from 50+ year old vines; a monopole of the domaine; destemmed manually). Much like the Caillerets, this is exuberantly floral on the elegant and airy nose of spice, cool red and dark berries and wisps of exotic tea. The strikingly fine middle weight flavors possess superb intensity as well as obvious minerality that really seems to build on the long, balanced and markedly firm finale. A wine of both style and class. Drink: 2035+. (Apr 2025)"

92-94 points Jasper Morris, MW (Inside Burgundy): "Just racked this week. The Lafarges decided against their hand destemming in 2023 because there wasn’t time and the grapes were warm. A solid dark centre with crimson rim. The nose is slightly muddled after racking. I do like the structured aftertaste, less tannic than Clos des Chênes but beautifully interweaving with the sumptuous fruit and very long. (Dec 2024)"