Allen Meadow 94
Deep ruby. A discreet, almost reserved but highly complex nose of minerals and ripe red pinot and plum fruit aromas frame edgy, precise and wonderfully pure, superbly well balanced flavors that possess stunning length. I doubt that this will one day equal the incredible '02 but it's not ridiculous to compare them. Another inspired effort in an amazingly long line of them.
Guillaume d'Angerville and his brother-in-law Renaud de Villette, who is primarily responsible for the viticulture at the domaine, told me that 2003 was a "very challenging vintage. We lost 50% of the harvest and brought in on average only 20 hl/ha. We did the triage from hell to eliminate figgy and burned grapes. While there was certainly some quantity loss from the frost, in Volnay we lost more from the heat. When we brought the grapes in, we instantly chilled them for 2 to 3 hours to get them down to around 19° C and ultimately, down to 16° C. The cold maceration was very short this year as we didn't want to over extract. In fact, we limited the cuvaison to an average of only 6 days. Sugars were good but not as high as one might have expected, which is to say most parcels came in between 13 and 13.5 and we did not add a gram of tartaric in either color. We destemmed 100% and had extremely fast malos, indeed they finished shortly after the primary fermentations were done. Moreover, we used zero percent new oak as we did not wish to add another source of tannins. We were agreeably surprised at the positive evolution the wines evinced in cask and they are much better than we expected at the beginning of the harvest." The present plan is to bottle at the end of February. The d'Angerville '03s are among the very best in the entire Côte de Beaune and compare favorably to their stunning '02s. I had a chance to retaste the 2002 Clos des Ducs and I'm happy to report that it continues to display every bit of the mind boggling quality that it did at this time last year. Also, there is no Caillerets for the time being as much of the older vines were replanted recently.
