2020 Volnay Caillerets 1. Cru Marquis d'Angerville

This, like all of the samples, were refrigerator-cold as we tasted in an above-ground room that didn't feel like it was heated. It's very possible this wine might have shown even better were it a wee bit warmer. The nose and palate were very pleasantly forward with blackberries, spice and underbrush. The tannins were lightly sticky, but the acidity had particularly spry lift to carry the medium-plus body. Creamy oak gave the wine a nice velour leading into the gossamer finish.

(from two parcels measuring .65 ha). As is usually the case, this is notably spicier with its strikingly pure nose of red currant, plum, violet, lavender and dried herb wisps. Much like the Clos des Angles, the mouthfeel is lilting though decidedly punchy while the equally persistent and youthfully austere finish seems to be built on a base of firm minerality. This elegant effort appears to have everything it needs to reward extended aging. In a word, excellent.

The domaine began harvest with the 2020 Volnay 1er Cru Caillerets on August 18, and the resulting wine is elegant and charming, wafting from the glass with notions of red plums, dark chocolate, sweet spices and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, bight and precise, it's fine-boned and seamless, with filigree tannins and a long, mineral finish.

The 2020 Volnay Les Caillerets 1er Cru comes from vines planted in 2000 (the older vines purchased several years ago were uprooted in this vintage.) It has a more intense bouquet than the Fremiets with black cherries, raspberry punnet, crushed stone and silex aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with crunchy black cherry and raspberry fruit, a taut line of acidity, linear and strict with a brisk white pepper tinged, quite Pommard-like, almost clinical finish. Excellent, but unapologetically hardcore.