The 2023 Volnay 1er Cru blends Pitures and Mitans to deliver a delicate, velvety red redolent of plums, cherries and sweet berries. Medium-bodied, suave and succulent, it will offer a broad drinking window. Guillaume d'Angerville and technical director François Duvivier began the harvest on September 4, 2023, picking only in the mornings, reporting yields no higher than in 2022. Supple, sensual and fragrant, these wines will offer a broad drinking window. As I've written before, followers of d'Angerville will be familiar with the protocol here: biodynamic farming, destemmed grapes, classical macerations and élevage in barrels—of which some 20% are new, with older barrels generally being retained for five vintages. These have always been seriously long-lived wines, but contemporary d'Angerville isn't quite as backward and slow to evolve as the wines were in the days of Guillaume d'Angerville's father. The use of barrels with a somewhat younger average age—even if percentages of new wood remain very modest—gives them a slightly glossier patina, especially in their youth.(WK)

Note: from a roughly 1/3 blend of Pitures and 2/3 L'Ormeau. A slightly fresher nose freely displays its notes of various red berries, especially cherry, along with subtle spice and soft earth nuances. The sleek, well-detailed and delicious middle weight flavors are not quite as dense though they are noticeably finer and with more minerality too on the dusty, youthfully austere and better-balanced finale. Lovely and understated in style.*Burghound Outstanding!*

The 2023 Volnay 1er Cru, a blend of Les Pitures and Les Mitans (mostly the former as the latter is partially uprooted) has slightly lower alcohol than the Village, though it still sports quite an extrovert bouquet compared to other vintages: ripe red cherries, crushed strawberry and candied orange peel aromas. The palate is quite sweet and candied, fleshy, quite plush with touches of fig and white pepper toward the finish. Not bad, though my predilection is for the 2022 over the 2023.(NM)