2005 Volnay 1er Cru

Sourced from Mitans, Pitures, Les Anges, and young vines in the Clos des Ducs – in short, from both high-elevation and high rent districts – d’Angerville’s 2005 Volnay 1er Cru displays a fascinating nose of bitter-sweet black cherry, sage, lavender, musky florality, and roasted meat. Palate-staining in intensity, it adds distinctly chalky and wet stone notes to its rich fruit, pungent herbs and flowers, and marrowy carnality in a superb, persistently bright finish. The late Jacques d’Angerville’s son Guillaume and long-time wine making collaborator and brother-in-law Renaud de Villette can boast a superb collection of 2005s, but an equally apt tribute to the legacy of the late Marquis are the odds-beating results they bottled from 2004, when to the universal difficulties of that vintage were added the ravages of hail it visited on Volnay. The 2005s fermented with pump-overs but no punch-downs and exhibit formidable underlying structure yet pure fruit and early, flattering textural development. Importer: Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines Company, New York, NY; tel. (212) 419-1400