A January bottling. A width of interesting and pretty aromatic notes, underpinned with deeper, darker elements. A narrow entry on the palate, but it widens considerably. Decent structure of well balanced tannin and acidity – lovely balanced wine.

A medium, medium-plus quite young looking colour. If it wasn’t so sweetly fruity I’d describe the nose as perfumed; it starts as a creamy ’summer pudding’ with undertones of caramel, 2 hours is enough to focus the aromas to a beam of pure red berry – as perfect as a young villages Volnay can be. On your tongue it has A1 balance and a very understated impact. A characterful flavour in the finish that nods to the barrel but without any of the wood tannin texture. I spent most of my time sniffing, but it tastes rather good too. I rather wish I’d bought this in magnums – but hey-ho…

The Potel signature wine is, in 2006, a compendium of around 12 separately vinified parcels whose vines average out at 60+ years old. The nose is wide with a nice complexity of dried berries; cranberry, redcurrant and black cherries – very nice. The palate has good intensity and a background of ripe tannin. The finish is a good one. – recommended as always.

Medium-plus ruby red. The nose is a real stunner; full of individual red berries – redcurrant and cranberry. The palate has an understated entry which starts narrow, opening wider as you move along with the acidity into the mid-palate. Silken with well covered tannins and a nice length. Wonderful villages despite the short note!

Medium-plus cherry-red colour. There’s a concentrated core of red fruit on the nose, pure but linear. The palate is very serious; there’s plenty of faintly grained and slightly astringent tannin. The acidity is fine, and leads to a very good, mouth-watering length. Super villages.

Highly rated by Coates on release this wine tightened up and hid it’s charms very soon afterwards – most bottles were disappointing until last year when it looked like it might be turning the corner. Today it shows a medium-plus ruby-red colour. Cool, the nose is imbued with a hint of roast coffee and faint plum. As it warms, high-toned red berry fruit and red-currant is released. The palate gives a ripe impression, but still manages to serve-up sour cherry with a caramel edged finish. Still on the up, without a doubt the best bottle from this case.

An assemblage from 13 different parcels. Fresh and complex nose, despite being quite tight. On the palate, a sweet entry that’s wide and interesting. You notice the structure before the texture but then there’s a really defining extra edge of complexity in the mid-palate. It might not be the greatest VV cuvée from this house, but it’s very good.

I’ve one superb and one really good Potel 1er Cru from Potel in 99 (Clos des Chênes and En Chevret), time to see how the villages is getting on. Medium-plus ruby-red colour to a watery rim. The nose is dominated at the start by toasty oak – unusual for a Potel wine – though slowly this goes through a caramel stage before it majors on the fruit: beautiful, clear red berries before becoming rather indistinct. Fresh and quite intense though I think there is still rather a lot of oak on the palate where it’s the most likely the source of those grainy tannins. There’s plenty of material here but I’m not 100% sure it will eventually overcome the ‘muddying’ effect of the wood – after-all it’s already 4 years since release. Still, however, I managed to enjoy it to the last drop.