Here there is no reduction whatsoever with a reasonably expressive nose of red and blue pinot fruit and dried rose petal nuances that dissolve into rich, intense and mineral-inflected flavors of crystalline purity and wonderful cut and precision, all wrapped in an exceptionally fresh, deep and mouth coating finish that seems to go on and on. The balance is impeccable and this too will live for many a year before it reaches old age. A classic Ducster that is slightly bigger than the '07 version is not quite as refined. A choice.

(JG89-92 points) The 2006 Clos des Ducs is a bit more modern in style than the wines produced here prior to Jacques d’Angerville passing away, but it is a very well-made wine just the same. The wine offers up a complex and classy nose of cherries, pomegranate, coffee, woodsmoke, incipient notes of gamebird, soil tones and a touch of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and still quite youthfully structured, with a good core, fine focus and grip and a long, fairly chewy finish that shows just a touch of unexpected wood tannins poking through. These days, the domaine rotates its barrels on a ten year rotation, so the same ten percent new oak as was used back in Jacques d’Angerville’s day is now augmented by a lot of one, two and three year-old wood that would have been forty years of age back in the old days here. So the wines show more oak influence as a result, but they are still quite well made in their new idiom. 2018-2040?

Bright black cherry fruit with a distilled overtone augmented by sweetly pungent brown spices greets the nose from a glass of d'Angerville 2006 Volnay Clos Des Ducs. There is an overt sense of density and of chalky minerality but - as with the more darkly-hued Taillepieds - that does not occlude the juicy flow of ripe fruit or a sense of lift and refinement. Well-knit and ineradicable in flavor as this is I feel sure it will be worth following for ten or a dozen years and strongly suspect that it is only showing hints of the complexity that will come in another 3-4.

Focused cherry, berry and forest underbrush notes are backed by solid tannins. This offers a lot of fruit packed into an elegant frame, but needs time to resolve its tannins. Best from 2012 through 2021. 150 cases imported. –BS