Domaine Y. Clerget, Volnay Premier Cru, Champans 2022 - 150cl
Champans lies mid-slope in Volnay, just below Taillepieds, and it tends to give the village a touch more muscle than its neighbours without losing Volnay's essential silkiness. Domaine Y. Clerget works forty-six-year-old vines here, and this magnum comes from the ripe 2022 vintage, a warm and generous season that has pushed the wine toward its darker, more powerful side. Thibaud Clerget, the twenty-eighth generation to farm this corner of the Cote de Beaune, revived the family domaine in 2015 and favours restraint in the cellar, letting the site speak.
The nose is complex and comparatively broad-shouldered for Volnay, showing blackberry, blackcurrant and a savoury note of tea leaf. The palate is where the contradiction resolves: dense and long, yet charming and satin-textured, with fine tannins and enough freshness to keep the ripe 2022 fruit taut. It is big for the appellation, but it stays graceful. The magnum format slows everything down, so while it drinks well with a couple of hours' air now, it will hold and deepen across the next eight to ten years. A bottle to open when there are enough people at the table to do it justice.
How to Serve
Serve at 15 to 17C in large Burgundy glasses. Decant the magnum forty-five minutes ahead to let the darker fruit unfurl.
Where to Drink It
Scott's Mayfair, for a long, unhurried lunch.
The Wolseley, if the occasion calls for grand-cafe theatre.
J Sheekey, alongside its richer fish dishes.
Food Pairings
Slow-roast duck leg with braised red cabbage, playing to the wine's dark-fruited depth.
