The d’Angerville’s 2007 Volnay Clos Des Ducs is far more concentrated and youthful in aspect than its Champans counterpart, with blackberry, cherry pit, black tea, crushed stone, and iodine combining with relative firmness of texture, but with compensatory richness of beef marrow adding to its darkly-hued, bitter-edged, somber complexity. I suspect that this palate-staining Volnay will keep longer than most of its ilk in this vintage, perhaps 8-10 years. 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