2008 Domaine Marquis d'Angerville, Volnay Premier Cru, Fremiets

Good medium red. Redcurrant, raspberry and tobacco on the nose. Juicy, firm and penetrating, with good purity to the mineral and spice flavors. A rather strict, rocky style but with very good precision of fruit. Finishes with excellent grip and length. The product of a severe selection, noted d'Angerville.

The d’Angerville 2008 Volnay Fremiet amplifies some of the themes of their Clos des Angles (grown just east of it): tart red fruits tinged with peat and pepper and underlain by salted meat stock. Hints of leather and prominent, dusty crushed stone suffusion are part of the lean, bright, intense picture here, too, and a relative austerity vis-a-vis Clos des Angles seems to reflect the rocky, thin surface soil environment in this part of Fremiet. This certainly grips implacably and invigoratingly. Will its extra measure of tannin and palpable extract help it live longer? Or – more to the point – will this be interesting or user-friendly a dozen years from now? Probably, but I’d still be inclined to put my money on Clos des Angles with its additional youthful enticement. 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

This has a sedate nose of raspberry, coffee and strawberry with very prudent use of oak lending it definition and refinement. The palate is medium-bodied with citric acidity, fine edgy tannins with honey flavours inflecting the dense red-berried fruit towards the pert finish. Drink now-2018. Tasted January 2010.

Rich and seductive. Ripe black fruits. Lively. (JR)