The wine in this lot has a score of 93+ from Robert Parker and the following tasting note -Tasted blind, the 2015 Volnay 1er Cru Les Santenots-du-Milieu offers up a deep bouquet of red-black cherries, spices, potpourri, espresso roast and subtle grilled meat. Full-bodied, ample and sappy on the palate, it's rich but vibrant, with fine-grained structuring tannins that are beginning to assert themselves on the finish. Having drunk several bottles of this wine since release, the extent to which it's shutting down is clearly apparent, and at this stage, patience will be required. My visit to Domaine des Comtes-Lafon was the final during my first full week of tasting, on a damp squib of a Thursday afternoon. The construction in the reception office is now complete and comes replete with a glass floor allowing visitors to peer down at the barrel cellar. Very nice, though to those like me without a head for heights, it just induces mild vertigo. After a customary cheeky cigarette, which I now factor into my schedule, Dominique and I descended down to his barrel cellar during which we had an interesting discussion regarding the reduced 2013 Montrachet that I had tasted a couple of weeks before. He told me that this is his intention, a countermeasure against premature oxidation that afflicted some of his bottles during the early 2000s. In tandem with this move is the conversion to DIAM closures, of which he is a big fan and arguably the highest profile advocate of the closure alongside Domaine Leflaive. "People ask me how I can use DIAM," he told me, "but I reply, how can you use corks when they cause so much TCA?" Touché! This led to a conversation with respect to adjusting the use of sulphur during the vinification. On this subject, Dominique paused for thought before commenting that really the only way to find out is through praxis, using DIAM and then testing bottles. Indeed, he is proactively opening his entire range after one year and beyond and testing sulphur levels. He seemed tempted to reduce the SO2, however, is certainly not inclined to rush into things.