2008 Volnay Les Taillepieds 1er Cru

A meld of fresh blackberry with red currant and red raspberry is tinged with cinnamon and shadowed by black tea smokiness in the nose of d’Angerville’s 2008 Volnay Taillepieds. Here we have grip and almost electric brightness and energy allied to vivid fresh red berries as well as a complex undertone of forest floor, mushroom stock, and beef broth. Tartness of berry skin; smoky, pungent black tea and Szechuan pepper; and chalky, saline and peaty notes, make for a dramatic finishing flourish. This finely-structured Volnay should be worth following for 12-15 years at least. Guillaume d’Angerville and Renaud de Villette had good reason for their upbeat assessment of 2008 quality given the vintage’s travails, notably July hail that ravaged their Champans and parts of their villages and Bourgogne holdings, as well as touching other sites. The hail came too soon in the season, though, to have ill-effects on the eventual health of the fruit, and the team did not start picking until the 27th of September. With the exception of Clos des Ducs and Taillepieds – bottled the week of my April visit, but showing no ill-effects, au contraire – the 2008s were bottled in early March. Importer: Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines Company, New York, NY; tel. (212) 419-1400

Good full red. Highly aromatic nose combines cherry, minerals and spices. Bright and primary but already complex, with a sappy quality giving energy and lift to the red fruit and mineral flavors. Finishes firm and aromatic. Quite unevolved owing to the late malo, which only ended in September. There was hail here too, but much less than in the Caillerets.

Lively and tense and racy. Lovely stuff and I believe that the future will be even better. Long. (JR)