Alan ‘Burghound’ Meadows slightly prefers the Clos des Ducs to the Champans, but both are really damned with faint praise, alas. Sorry to be the bearer of unhappy news but I don’t think your 01 d’Angervilles will ever blow your socks off (as one, quite rightly, expects them to).

It would be wishful thinking to say this wine was closed and will blossom given time. I’m afraid, and more than a little unhappy, to say that this is just a poor vintage from d’Angerville. Such a difficult year in Volnay (and the Cote de Beaune more generally); Monsieur Pousse d’Or declassified all of his Volnay 01 1er Crus to village level so vexed was he with the quality of the vintage.

As far as I have experienced there is one stand-out wine that bucked the trend for 01 Cote de Beaune wines: Pommard Clos des Epeneaux from Comte Armand. Damned good and damned serious wine by any definition of the word. The last bottle I popped a year ago was clearly too young but delivered the ‘quality Burgundy’ goods in spades (much as it did when tasted at the winery and also two years ago). Even the usually epic, intense de Courcel Pommard 1er Crus made by the somewhat curmudgeonly Yves Confuron are thin and pale next to this wine.

Of course, we know there are many top bunny 2001s from the Cote de Nuits.

Cheers,
David.

Thanks for taking a hit for the cause. This is disappointing news as I have some 01 Clos Des Ducs that I was looking forward to in a few years. I might have to try it out sooner rather than later.

Do you think that there is any chance that these 01s are just shut down at the moment?

Cheers,
Will