Readers will have a fun time debating the relative merits of d'Angerville's 2018, 2019 and 2020 Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs in 20 years' time, as for now it is a very close-run thing. The 2020 is certainly superb, wafting from the glass with aromas of sweet cherries, plums and berries mingled with spices, orange zest, peony and discreet hints of oak, followed by a medium to full-bodied, layered and seamless palate that's bright, elegant and rich but refined. Of the trio, it's probably the 2020 that carries the sunshine and warmth of the vintage the most lightly, even though the year was, on paper, the most extreme.

The 2019 Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs is immensely promising, mingling aromas of cherries and cassis with notions of orange rind, violets, raw cocoa and forest floor. Medium to full-bodied, layered and multidimensional, it's bright and concentrated, built around powdery tannins and tangy acids.

The 2018 Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs has turned out very nicely in bottle, mingling aromas of raspberries and blood orange with hints of espresso roast and sweet soil tones. Medium to full-bodied, concentrated and multidimensional, it's impressively fine-boned and elegant, the inherently muscular vintage notwithstanding, with a vibrant core of fruit, exquisitely powdery tannins and a long, saline finish. If d'Angerville's 2018 Champans is a fine example of the year, the Clos des Ducs by contrast transcends it.

The 2017 Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs is the most incipiently complex wine in the cellar this year, unfurling in the glass with aromas of sweet red berries, grilled squab, dark chocolate and spices, as well as a lifted top-note of rose petal. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, satiny and layered, with good concentration at the core, a fine-grained but elegantly firm chassis of tannin and a long, mineral finish.