Marquis d'Angerville

The 2019 vintage has turned out very well indeed at Domaine Marquis d'Angerville, where Guillaume d'Angerville and François Duvivier have produced yet another superb portfolio. A touch finer-boned and more vibrant than the estate's 2018s—though the monopole Clos des Ducs always seems to transcend the vintage—the 2019s are beautiful wines that exemplify the elegant muscularity that I'd single out as this domaine's underlying signature over the decades. 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. WILLIAM KELLEY, Wine Advocate