2016 Domaine Marquis d'Angerville Volnay Les Champans 1er Cru
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Tasting notes
This was a magnum kindly donated by Guillaume d'Angerville to be served at a lunchtime gathering for wine media on the day of the tasting. Magnum. Pale shaded ruby/garnet. Transparent rim. Gentle, relatively low-key nose. Very sweet palate entry with some bitterness. Great purity. Still quite a charge of tannin – not nearly as ready as the Caillerets from bottle. A precision tool to express Volnay but still backward. Perhaps because of the magnum? (JR)
Critic scores
Jancis Robinson MW
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Champans is regarded as 'quintessential Volnay' by Guillaume d'Angerville and 'a perfect introduction to Volnay'. Deep crimson still. Very pure and flattering. Long, vibrant and utterly seductive with a silky texture. Lovely wine. (JR)
In contrast to the precocious 2017, the 2016 Volnay 1er Cru Les Champans is tight-knit and reserved and will demand patience. Offering up aromas of plums, cherries, violets, dark chocolate and forest floor, the wine is, medium to full-bodied, chewy and firm, with lovely depth at the core but an imposing, muscular chassis of fine-grained tannin that asserts itself on the finish. I have no concerns about the balance of this Champans, but readers should plan on waiting at least a dozen years before pulling corks.
(the entire bottom of this vineyard was fried by frost, according to régisseur François Duvivier): Bright, dark red-ruby. Medicinal blueberry and licorice aromas are lifted by a minty high note; less showy and more restrained on the nose than the Taillepieds and Caillerets today. Then wonderfully dense, primary and pure on the palate, but more vertical and less opulent than the Taillepieds and Caillerets. Strong mineral energy accentuates the impression of vibrancy. A bit less open to inspection today owing to its firm tannic spine.
About the producer
Marquis d'Angerville is synonymous with the village of Volnay, having long made some of the village’s finest wines. Best known for its Premier Cru monopole vineyard, Clos des Ducs, this estate crafts fine-boned, elegant styles of Pinot Noir – wines that act as standard-bearers for the appellation.