Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Champans 2022
We have 3 in stock (Inventory is live and accurate)
The Land
Champans is d'Angerville's biggest vineyard by a wide margin: 3.98 hectares of a climat of about 11, more than a third of the entire premier cru. It lies mid-slope at roughly 280 to 300 meters, facing south-south-east, with 40 to 60 centimeters of calcareous clay over Bathonian limestone. That clay, tinged red with iron, is the difference. It holds water through a hot summer and gives Champans more body and firmer tannin than the stonier sites nearby, which is why it reads as Volnay's structural counterpart to perfumed Caillerets. The d'Angerville vines average 40 to 45 years old, deep-rooted enough to ride out a dry year like 2022.
The Wine
The Domaine Marquis d'Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Champans 2022 is 100% Pinot Noir, fully destemmed, fermented with pump-overs rather than punch-downs, and aged through two winters in barrel with about a fifth to a quarter new oak. 2022 was hot and early: May set a fifty-year record, June storms soaked the Côte de Beaune, and August heat peaks brought the domaine's harvest forward to August 23. Guillaume d'Angerville still describes it as a classic vintage with no heat in the wines. When Bill Nanson tasted the Champans in barrel it was reductive, as young d'Angerville often is, but he called its shape superb and its potential great. Expect dark cherry, a firm grip and a long finish, and decant it if you open it before 2028.
The People
Guillaume d'Angerville did not plan to make wine. He built a career in investment banking in London, New York and Paris, and came home to Volnay only when his father Jacques died unexpectedly in the summer of 2003. He inherited a domaine already at the top of the village and chose to change the farming rather than the style: conversion to biodynamics began in 2006 and was complete by 2009. In 2005 he put François Duvivier in charge of the vines and cellar, and the two have worked together since, including on Domaine du Pélican, their project in the Jura. His brother-in-law Renaud de Villette, who had worked beside Jacques for years, kept the handover steady.
Food Pairing
Champans has the tannin for red meat. Grill a ribeye over charcoal, slice it thin, and top it with a shallot and red wine butter; the wine's grip cuts through the fat. Coq au vin, braised slowly with lardons, mushrooms and pearl onions, is the regional match. Roast pork loin with prunes and a splash of Armagnac picks up the darker fruit, and a plate of aged Mimolette works after dinner. This is the d'Angerville premier cru to choose when you want real structure without the long wait the Clos des Ducs asks for.
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Pinot Noir is a thin-skinned, notoriously difficult-to-grow, low-yielding grape that finds its ancestral home in Burgundy, France, where it produces some of the world's most elegant and nuanced wines. While Burgundy remains its spiritual heartland, Pinot Noir has since traveled the globe, finding success in other cooler climates, notably in California, Oregon, New Zealand, and Germany. This grape is a challenge for any grower, as it requires specific conditions to show its best, and yet the wines it produces are capable of such a captivating and singular character.
