Offering up aromas of plums, cassis, burning embers, warm spices, rose petals and discreet hints of toasty new oak, Leroy's 2019 Volnay 1er Cru Les Santenots du Milieu is medium to full-bodied, ample and enveloping, its powdery tannins and lively girdling acids entirely concealed in its layered, multidimensional core of fruit. This is a demonstrative, rather gourmand Santenots that will offer an unusually broad drinking window in this charming vintage.

The 2018 Volnay 1er Cru Les Santenots du Milieu is especially successful this year, offering up notes of cassis, wild plums, rose petals and exotic spices. Full-bodied and muscular but also unusually elegant, with exquisitely refined but abundant tannins and a seamless, harmonious profile, it has the structure to reward extended bottle age.

Aromas of cassis and plums mingle with notions of pencil lead, woodsmoke and rich soil tones, introducing the 2017 Volnay 1er Cru Les Santenots du Milieu, a medium to full-bodied, velvety and succulent wine, with good depth at the core and powdery structuring tannins, concluding with a long finish. This is a comparatively giving, expressive rendition of Santenots, a cuvée that can often be a little introverted in its youth—indeed, I sometimes think it as the Clos Vougeot of the C?te de Beaune chez Leroy—though it still possesses plenty of upside.

The 2016 Volnay 1er Cru Les Santenots du Milieu is deep and brooding, unwinding in the glass with notes of wild blueberries, pencil lead, burning embers, cassis and grilled meat. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with a broad-shouldered and firm but fine-grained chassis of structuring tannin fleshed out with deep reserves of fruit and savory nuance. The finish is long and sapid. As usual, this is one of the less immediate wines in the range and will need some time.

The 2015 Volnay 1er Cru Les Santenots du Milieu from Domaine Leroy is one of the more brooding, reserved wines in the portfolio this year, opening in the glass with notes of plums, inky dark berries and pencil shavings. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, bottomlessly deep and powerful, with immense concentration and a velvety but firm chassis of tannin that asserts itself on the chalky, authoritative finish. This will take time to realize all its potential, but at maturity this score is likely to look conservative.