2023 Volnay Village

Guillaume d’Angerville welcomed me at his Volnay estate with his daughter, Margot, who is taking an increasingly active role in its running. “The 2023 was a solar vintage,” Guillaume tells me. “We had a very early start to the season with an almost too fine flowering with plenty of bunches. We had a little rain in June and July that was welcome as it was still very dry. The one thing I will always remember happened in late August: we had a significant heat wave. This put its mark on the vintage. There was no forecast that it would be so severe. So, the wines are higher in alcohol than we like them to be with higher pH. We started the picking on September 4, stopping at 1 p.m. as it was so hot. We didn’t do that even in 2003. Everyone says there are enormous yields, but here they are marginally higher than recent averages, and, in fact, lower than in 1999 with respect to Premier Crus. It is a generous crop, but not as generous as people think. The fermentation was normal. I think they will be bottled a little earlier than other vintages as they don’t have so much to gain.”

This was a tale of two vintages. As I expressed during my tasting, the entry-level Volnays, the Village and blended Premier Cru (without vineyard designation) and maybe the Clos des Angles do not disguise the mark of the heat wave. Ascending into the Volnay Premier Crus, they could almost be born in a cooler vintage, the Champans challenging the supremacy of the Clos des Ducs monopole this year.