2005 Volnay Champans

Good full red. Reticent nose suggests cherry, licorice, flowers and truffle. Displays the copious sweetness of the vintage but with terrific focus and underlying spine. A stony, minerally pinot with real delicacy and cut. The long, noble finish offers a lovely combination of silk and stone and enticing lingering perfume. An archetypical Volnay that combines structure and charm: I wouldn't be surprised if this merited an even higher score eight or ten years from now.

One of the three batches that will be blended to make up d ‘Angerville’s 2005 Volnay Champans was still in malo, so I base my assessment on the other two. Scented with cherry and cassis, flowers and fungus, smoke and chalk dust, this displays richness and depth, fine tannins and emerging silkiness, and a youthfully firm but long finish loaded with savory subtleties. Just give it 6-8 years before revisiting. (The outstanding d’Angerville 2004s were also very late to finish malo, and the Champans is especially memorable for its vivid sauteed champignons, alluring ginger spice, marrowy richness, and flattering mouth feel, indeed comparable in quality though lacking the developmental potential of this 2005. As a striking example of mercantile bipolar disorder, I purchased this outstanding 2004 for $49.99 from a merchant whose price on the 2005 thus represented a 350% premium!) 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

Good deep red. Aromas of blackberry, black cherry, chocolate, minerals and flowers. Silky and suave but also classically dry and powerful. Finishes with broad, dusty tannins and lovely persistence. "The summary of all of our wines," notes Angerville, "combining the class of Taillepieds with the attack and expressiveness of Cailleret and Fremiet." A strong vintage for this cuvee