Domaine d'Angerville: Pioneering, Purity, and Patience

Guillaume d’Angerville’s Volnay domaine is both classic and pioneering. The domaine was among the first to step back from the prevailing negociant system in 1920, and was again among Burgundy’s vanguard when it began conversion to Biodynamic farming in 2006. Today, d’Angerville’s style evokes purity and patience above all. All fruit is destemmed and aged in no more than 25% new barrique. In youth, the wines show precise notes of fresh black cherry, raspberries, and strawberries, but these blossom to their fullest as age reveals streaks of sweet spice, smoke, and earth.

The lion’s share of today’s offer comes from the dramatically small 2021 vintage. Frost impacted some vineyards such that only one barrel was made, one-sixth of d’Angerville’s already small production. The Clos des Ducs monopole was one triumph of the vintage, already showing elegant red berry notes and an intensity that should reward ten or more years of cellaring.

For those looking to explore across vintages, a miniature vertical of Fremiets offers an excellent chance to taste the recent state of Volnay. Fremiets’ shallow soil and gentle slope channel 2021’s precision, 2020’s power, and the supple, agreeable weather of ’18 and ’22 into faithful representations of their respective years. Comparing any of d’Angerville’s vintages and vineyards is an eye-opening experience, and more importantly, an epicurean delight.