Tasted with Guillaume d’Angerville and François Duvivier in Volnay, 10 February 2016.
Domaine Marquis d’Angerville
Rue de Mont
21190 Volnay
Tel: +33 3 80 21 61 75
www.domainedangerville.fr
Guillaume on the 2014s:
“The 2014s were not really affected by the hail – except in terms of volume of-course. 15 years ago, I’m sure the wines would have been more abrupt or disjointed. Now they are seductive and approachable, so much so that maybe some people mistake that for ‘early drinking!’
“In 2014 the terroirs are distinct, what we did in 2014, the same as in 2013, we tried to eliminate the hail taste by ‘cleaning the juices’ – basically taking the juice out of the tank of grapes for the first night, place that juice in another tank, then putting it back with the grapes the next day, but leaving the bottom layer of that second tank behind – the juice that had maybe washed away anything that we didn’t want.
“Today, everything is still in barrel, but it tastes ready to assemble.”
The wines…
At this point in their elevage there’s just a little oak flavour peaking through, and on many of these, but I’m pretty sure that this is just a phase. “The oak strategy is unchanged with 20-25% used.”
The wines are, otherwise, watchwords for elegant purity, they have such supreme balance that they will comfortably outlive me – and note, not ‘outlive’ just for the sake of it, but rather for their betterment!
2014 Passetoutgrains
A wine I’ve never tasted before. This has been in the family for 200 years, Guillaume’s father had given up making it, but they began again with François and even bought extra vines in Montpulans. “An ordinary wine, but one that we make with care.” It will stay with PTG label. One part replanted in 2011, the same massalle selection as is used for the 1er Crus. Mainly sold into Japan, in 2014 it will also reach the US for the first time.
Floral, delicate but also supported by a fine, cushioned fruit. Round, delicate in the mouth too, but with a nice layering of flavour – a little creamy oak today. But delicious wine of a more than subtle length.
From vines in Petits Pres and Grands Terres. The label does say PN – “I think we have we have to be realistic, and show people what they drink.”
A much more incisive nose of clean dark fruit, a deep well of fruit – not too effusive but precisely delivered. Fuller, a clean, fine acidity, a slowly growing weight of flavour, faintly textured with tannin. Super finish – really more overt and tasty today. Only the merest suggestion of oak in this flavour.
2014 Volnay
Only Grand Champs in this year – Pluchots was replanted in 2015.
More aromatic width, if slightly tighter than the Bourgogne, almost an orange-red fruit width, below a discreet florality. Silky, wide, growing flavour concentration – very floral, inflected with a little oak – here definitely an elegant wine, of subtle complexity and charm. Yum! Super length.
2014 Volnay 1er Cru
A blend of Pitures and Mitans – sometimes some young vines end up in here too. The Pitures just over the wall from Clos des Ducs, planted, with a mix of clones, at the end of 1990s. The Mitans is actually in Ormeaux.
Medium, medium-plus colour. A beautiful, deep, seemingly textured nose. More open, a little more intense, certainly a more mouth-watering complexity – faintly oaked like the others. A base of textural tannin, no grain. Supple and ‘giving,’ bright and open plus effusive and floral at the start of the finish. More architectural but beautifully delivered. Excellent!
One of the parcels is newer to the domaine, but the two parcels share a similar vine-age. ‘Side-by side, they seem very coherent.’
Again, medium, medium-plus colour. This has a complex, almost textured width of aroma, with a very faint spice component – a Vosne style of aromatic complexity. A hint fresher, mouth-watering with fine intensity, a wine that moves effortlessly over the tongue. A little peak of finishing flavour that shows flowers and faint oak. Simply super!
2014 Volnay 1er Frémiets
Fremiets is almost always the first vineyard harvested by the domaine, followed by Caillerets.
Here a really beautiful, high-toned nose of precise fruit and flowers – gorgeous. A little more weight and texture of tannin here – a little drag to the texture but no real grain. Below is a more intense weight of dark fruit mixed with mineral and herb aspects. More material you might say. Plenty of finishing concentration with a saline edge. Fine wine!
Owned about 0.5 ha, was probably replanted about 98/99, then bought almost 0.2 ha which has quite old vines – no dates attached to those vines, but probably they are at least 50 years old. 2013 was the first vintage with the new vines. In Caillerets Dessus near the 60 ouvrées. Both parcels are quite close.
Medium, medium-plus. Really an achingly lovely nose – a seamless blending of flowers and fruit that’s almost spherical. Equally beautiful in the mouth, there are some distracting oak elements today, but whilst this has a little discretion there are also layers of flavour that slowly move over the palate. The base is a very fine tannin, almost no grain. Brighter in the finish. Slightly contemplative wine – but what wine!
At the top of Taillepieds above the vines of de Montille – there’s quite some slope here – uprooted 1/3 of the parcel which was replanted in 2015, the rest are from 1970 or–so.
A much more open, bigger, slightly spiced aroma. A wine that is a little more structural with fine bones, great acidity, darker fruit, but still begging you to take the next sip. An extra element of higher toned fruit at the start of the finish. Wide and long – it narrows quickly in the finish but sustains with great persistence. Really something!
2014 Volnay 1er Champans
Close to 4 hectares of vines in 2 parcels that are parallel and both go from the bottom to the top of the vineyard.
A big, round, cushioned nose that has a little creamy oak to frame it. A little more tannin, good shape in the mouth, more volume of mouth-watering, leaching, complexity – the mid-palate showing a very nice texture and depth of flavour too – quite the largest finishing, not just length but shape too. Super again!
Open, showing much more aromatic definition – after the initial ‘wow’ it almost tightens – now offering ‘only’ a very silky width of fruit. Less overtly round, more saline, more definition again, call it clarity, extra mid-palate flavour – really there is a harmony here. Really this is a wine of more focus.
And let us not forget the whites…
2014 Bourgogne Aligoté
Bottled in June last year.
Beautiful precise and pretty notes of flowers and fresh fruit – ‘drink me’ it shouts! Supple, fresh, fine growing intensity too. Lovely width. An aperitif wine, but fine aperitif. This is actually very long – super!
Also vines in the bottom of the commune of Volnay.
An open, bright, forward nose of fresh, mineral fruit with a faint citrus edge – lovely. Width and complexity here, freshness – really a super wine, you wouldn’t blink if you were told it was a Meursault – super quality.
This is deep, wide, toasty – but subtly toasty – and silky too. This is a little more mineral, more weight, more ‘Meursault’ – lovely clarity and minerality towards the finish, and a salinity right on the tip of the tongue too. Today I’d drink the Bourgogne first – this can wait a little – but yum!