Aromas of sweet red berries, rose petals, orange rind, plum preserves and licorice introduce the 2019 Volnay 1er Cru Les Carelles, a medium to full-bodied, velvety and enveloping wine that's deep and complete, with a fleshy, elegantly muscular profile and powdery structuring tannins that gently assert themselves on the finish.

The 2018 Volnay 1er Cru Les Carelles was quite reserved when I tasted it from barrel, and it's the same way from bottle, unwinding with a youthfully reserved bouquet of ripe berries, licorice and dark chocolate, deftly framed by a discreet touch of oak. Medium to full-bodied, bright and tightly wound, it has gained in energy and precision with élevage, but it still needs some time in bottle to show all its cards.

The 2017 Volnay 1er Cru Les Carelles is showing beautifully from bottle, wafting from the glass with a deep bouquet of plums, dark chocolate, wild berries, violets and grilled squab. Medium to full-bodied, supple and enveloping, its expansive attack segues into a bright and nicely defined mid-palate, concluding with a chalky, mineral finish. Readers might want to think of this as a more tensile, mineral version of the Volnay Vieilles Vignes bottling that comes from just below Les Carelles.

The 2016 Volnay 1er Cru Les Carelles, located next to Champans, includes around 10% stems from bunches deemed worthy as they entered the vat. It has a crisp, focused, almost Pommard-like bouquet with subtle undergrowth scents and black pepper infusing the mainly red fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, just a hint of latté infusing the red fruit from the wood that will be subsumed with age. I like the density here, although it just does not quite deliver the killer blow on the finish like the Caillerets.