Marquis d'Angerville

This estate has a long history, with its flagship monopole vineyard, Clos des Ducs, recorded as long ago as 1507, with the 2.15-hectare site then owned by Burgundy’s dukes (and hence the site’s name).

Baron du Mesnil acquired the Clos des Ducs in 1804, passing it onto his son Eugène du Mesnil who left it to his nephew and godson Sem, Marquis d’Angerville, in 1888, then a mere 15 years of age. He took over two decades later, after phylloxera, replanting the vineyards with the now-famous Pinot d’Angerville clones. The property has remained in the D’Angerville family ever since. It was in the 1920s that the domaine rose to fame, when Sem d’Angerville became one of the pioneers of estate-bottling, a reaction against the blending of wines by négociants, something he felt was a crime against the region’s terroir. Along with Henri Gouges and Rousseau, he forged the path for the Burgundy of today.

Sem’s son Jacques took over in 1952 and, over 52 vintages, continued to build the estate’s reputation. When he passed away in 2003, Jacques’s son Guillaume d’Angerville – who had been working in finance – returned to the family business and is at the helm today, representing the sixth generation of his family. Guillaume’s brother-in-law Renaud de Villette works alongside him, and François Duvivier has managed the estate since 2007.

They were an early champion of biodynamics, switching over their viticulture in 2006 and becoming certified from the 2009 vintage. The winemaking is minimal in approach. The fruit is all de-stemmed, undergoing a cold-soak before fermentation (reaching a maximum 30-32̊C), with a total vatting time of 15-18 days. Extraction is deliberately gentle, with pumping over used exclusively. The wines are then aged in barrel, with around 20% new oak for the Volnay Premiers Crus, for 12 to 18 months depending on the wine. Fining and filtration is used if necessary, but avoided where possible.

One of the defining elements of the estate is its vine material, with clones dubbed “Pinot d’Angerville” used across their vineyards. Producing small berries with a high skin-to-juice ratio, these help lend natural ageability to the wines.

The estate comprises around 16.5 hectares today, largely in Volnay, with an impressive 11.5 hectares of Premier Cru Volnay (representing over 10% of the village’s total Premier Cru vineyard area).

Alongside the monopole Clos des Ducs, they have holdings in Caillerets, Champans, Clos des Angles, Fremiet, Mitans, Pitures and Taillepieds. They have half a hectare of village Volnay, 0.4 hectares of Pommard Premier Cru Combes-Dessus, one hectare of Meursault Premier Cru Meursault-Santenots and 3.2 hectares of regional vineyards (Bourgogne Rouge, Passetoutgrains, Blanc and Aligoté). All in all, production averages between 5,000 and 6,000 bottles a year.

Guillaume d’Angerville also owns Domaine du Pélican in the Jura.