2006 Domaine Marquis d'Angerville Volnay Les Champans 1er Cru

($68) Good full red. Pure, fresh aromas of dark cherry, licorice and minerals. Juicy, sweet and penetrating, with a medicinal reserve calling for six or seven years of patience. Finishes with dusty, serious but well-integrated tannins.

Author: Stephen Tanzer

Issue: March/April 2009

Blackish crimson. Some very serious aromas in there with a certain delicacy. The tannins are mellowing but at the moment there is just not that much charm or fruit. Too tough to drink for a while though it will doubtless mellow into something quite special.

Author: Jancis Robinson

I was mildly surprised to find a bit of reduction in the bottled version though not enough to completely hide the otherwise ripe, pure and highly complex red berry fruit aromas nuanced by a hint of iron oxide (a rusty earth character) that precedes rich, full and intense flavors that carry sleek muscle and real punch and power, all wrapped in a serious, chiseled and built to age finish. This is a wonderfully impressive wine that has the touch of youthful austerity that Champans always seems to display. Be sure to decant this for 30 minutes first as it improved noticeably with air.

Author: Allen Meadows

Issue: 2nd Quarter, 2009

Tasted assembled from tank on the eve of its bottling, d'Angerville's 2006 Volnay Champans offers a surprisingly austere and stonily mineral rendition of its site. That said, there is also abundant sweet, lightly-cooked cherry fruit, augmented on the nose by suggestions of talcum and bittersweet herbal extracts. Concentration and a sense of high extract here are by no means incompatible with refinement and buoyancy. I just wish the wine would open up and show a bit more color and seductiveness, but that may come. Certainly this will be good for at least 6-8 years.

Author: David Schildknecht

The black currant and blackberry flavors are well-defined and pure, supported by a base of dusty tannins. Concentrated, intense and elegant, with fine-grained tannins on the finish. Best from 2011 through 2020. 200 cases imported.

Author: Bruce Sanderson