Outstanding. I was mildly surprised to find a bit of reduction in the bottled version though not enough to completely hide the otherwise ripe, pure and highly complex red berry fruit aromas nuanced by a hint of iron oxide (a rusty earth character) that precedes rich, full and intense flavors that carry sleek muscle and real punch and power, all wrapped in a serious, chiseled and built to age finish. This is a wonderfully impressive wine that has the touch of youthful austerity that Champans always seems to display. Be sure to decant this for 30 minutes first as it improved noticeably with air. Drink: 2016+
-Allen Meadows, burghound.com, Issue 34. Tasted: Apr 01, 2009

Good ruby-red. Dark cherry, licorice and smoke aromas, complicated by musky earth and truffle nuances. Smooth and rich on the palate; less sharply defined than the Taillepieds but this has more volume and richness. Finishes with substantial, broad tannins and lovely aromatic persistence. The malolactic fermentation finished earlier than the last couple of wines, with the result, says d'Angerville, that here the tannins are "in place."

Good full red. Pure, fresh aromas of dark cherry, licorice and minerals. Juicy, sweet and penetrating, with a medicinal reserve calling for six or seven years of patience. Finishes with dusty, serious but well-integrated tannins.

Tasted assembled from tank on the eve of its bottling, d'Angerville's 2006 Volnay Champans offers a surprisingly austere and stonily mineral rendition of its site. That said, there is also abundant sweet, lightly-cooked cherry fruit, augmented on the nose by suggestions of talcum and bittersweet herbal extracts. Concentration and a sense of high extract here are by no means incompatible with refinement and buoyancy. I just wish the wine would open up and show a bit more color and seductiveness, but that may come. Certainly this will be good for at least 6-8 years. Like his illustrious father, Guillaume d’Angerville and estate director (and brother-in-law) Renaud de Villette have beaten the odds with their gentle art of winemaking (inter alia short maceration, no pigeage, promotion of late malo, low levels of new wood) in far more difficult vintages than 2006, so the generally high quality of their recent collection comes as no surprise. They waited until late September, and then brought in their entire crop in only five days. I have not had a chance to taste the d'Angerville generic and village wines, nor their Champans since it was bottled. Incidentally, this estate continues to routinely give its wines a course plaque filtration. Importer: Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines Company, New York, NY; tel. (212) 419-1400

Blackish crimson. Some very serious aromas in there with a certain delicacy. The tannins are mellowing but at the moment there is just not that much charm or fruit. Too tough to drink for a while though it will doubtless mellow into something quite special. (JR)