2008 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Les Fremiets- France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru (3/21/2012)
The 2008 Chevillon Cailles was such a winner that I decided to try another 2008 from a favorite producer, d’Angerville, in hopes of turning around my opinion of 2008. But no, this didn’t quite do it. The strengths of the vintage are in evidence here, as this is extremely terroir-transparent. Bouquet is of slightly creamy high-toned cranberry and cherry, following through with delicious Volnay silk with a touch of minerality, with slight tannins. Concentration is perfectly acceptable.
The problem, however, is the acidity. There’s way too much of it, and the rest of the wine can’t stand up to it. This is just not that enjoyable to drink because of the tartness, a crying shame since it is outstanding in all other respects.
So what can I say? For me, 2008 is a minefield. Some of the wines are great, but more often, they are deeply flawed in one way or the other (too hollow, weedy, acidic, what-have-you). It remains my least favorite vintage by far since 2004. (I vastly prefer any 2007 I’ve had from d’Angerville, and they hit a home run in 2009.)
2 thoughts. 1. Fremiets is a way underrated vineyard. 2. If everything else is good and it is very acidic, be patient
This wine will most likely be at it’s best on 20 years. Based on the note I would buy this to cellar. One thing I have started to learn about Burgs is that the evolution is surprising sometimes and you must be patient. Oh, and acidity is normally a good thing.
Three hours on each day, no change. It was just overwhelming, and I don’t see it going it away with age (having had a good number of overly-acidic older wines of various types I don’t think there is some chemical reaction that raises pH over time…)
2007 is rocking now, too. But that’s '07.
I’ve not yet tried the '08.
Could there be some issue with your bottle, or that it’s just in a funky spot right now.
Some positive comments about the '08 D’Angervilles out there.
Or many 2008s really just doesn’t hit your personal sweet spot.
BTW, the chemical reaction is not one that changes the PH in wine, but it is some oxygen-involved process that allows the fruit to wake up from some sort of bound state. Ive done some searches for scientific papers and no one seems to have researched (or at least published) on why it happens but (as Im sure you have experienced) wines can “close down” after bottling where the fruit is partially or completely hidden and the oxygen unbinds it somehow. The unbinding of the fruit can happen rapidly with aeration after opening the wine or slowly in the bottle over years. In the bottle it seems to happen non-linerarly but with a clear trend towards getting more and more open over the years. My own anecdotal experience is that the bound fruit phenomenon seems to correleate to acid levels. The more acidic the wine, the more fully and quickly does the fruit bind up. The more acidic the year the shorter the “grace period” before the fruit gets bound after bottling it seems. Ive also noticed that the more acidic the vintage, the longer it takes for areation to unbind the flavors. I’d love to know what the chemistry is behind this.
As an aside, with very acidic years, I like to slow ox in bottle and slowly wake up the wine as I have found that greatly extends the “open period” where the wine shows well. Sometimes with decanting the wine can show well for a little while while but then quickly fall in on itself and close up again.
All this said, it is totally possible that the Fremiets from d’Angerville was simply as miss in the 2008 vintage or that the bottle was bad somehow so I am not at all discounting your experience. The only reason I bring this up is that 0ther 2008s Ive had from that producer have shown wonderfully with long careful areation so it struck me as possible that your wine was just being overly slow to wake up.
I don’t think d’Angerville missed at all in 08. Personally, I think they are better than the 07s (which are quite good btw) but are not showing as well now. I’m happy to have both in the cellar but if forced to pick one, it would be the 08s.
Loved the 08 Ducs. But really, a serious wine in a vintage like 08 simple is not a wine to drink at age 4. And, of course, it’s possible they missed with the Fremiets.
I love this wine and the other '08’s from Angerville. Loved the Chevillon from '08 too …
I dislike like most '07’s except Angerville, Fourrier and Mugnier speaking in general producer centric terms.
Sounds like a palate preference thing … I love a good streak of acidity in my wine … it’s not for everybody.
Its a good point. Nick, are you looking for wines to drink young or looking for wines to hold until maturity? 2008s can certainly be fantastic now, but they are much harder to coax into a drinkable state now than they were a year ago.
we had the Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru 2008 at Boulud Sud a few months ago. Recommended by the somm. A beautiful, beautiful Burg. Smooth, long, balanced, elegant and interesting. Went well with a wide variety of foods.
(this was NOT Les Fremiets, just Volnay 1er Cru on the label IIRC–and that’s how they have it in the wine list)
FWIW, I just looked on the d’Angerville website. Apparently this one uses grapes from Les Mitans, Les Pitures (these two are on opposite sides of the N-S road), and “sometimes” grapes from young vines of “Tête de Cuvée” (which I guess means from any of their 1er vineyards).
Yes, could be. Broadbent’s book says the V 1er Cru used to be a blend of Mitans, Pitures, and Angles, and grapes from young vines of any of their 1er vineyards, but they recently extended Angles by buying more land and now apparently bottle it separately. And “Tête de Cuvée” is a bit ambiguous, it sort of implies the best grapes (ie Ducs) but I don’t think necessarily so.
Apparently not. I was negative from the beginning, so it’s not just a case of wines having closed down. But recently I thought I would re-evaluate after having the awesome 2008 Marc Roy Cuvee Alexandrine (quite by accident). My updated conclusion is that while there are great wines, they are few and far between for my palate, and there is no point in exploring any further given 2009 and 2010 (with prices less than 2008 at the moment in many cases).
I do have three 2008 Ducs in the cellar I won’t be opening for 15 years. If anything can stand up to high acidity they can.