The ruby/purple-colored Volnay offers jammy red cherry aromas and a thick, medium-to-full-bodied, oily-textured, and chewy character packed with cherries and candied raspberries. This soft and straightforward wine will offer generously fruity and immensely pleasurable drinking. Anticipated maturity: now-2001. Vincent Bitouzet crafted marvelous 1996s, capturing this vintage's succulent fruit. Unlike most vignerons with whom I spoke, Bitouzet reported that his wines' malos took place normally, and were not retarded. He did not heat the cellars or use malo-inducing artificial yeasts, attributing the rapid malo-lactic fermentation to the fact that little sulphur was used during vinification. Importer: Neil Rosenthal, Select Vineyards, Shekomeko, NY; Tel (800) 910-1990.