Volnay Rarity
2011 d'Angerville Volnay
1er Cru Les Caillerets
That I can even offer d'Angerville's Caillerets is a serious coup.
As you are doubtlessly well aware by now, I offer the wines of the Marquis d'Angerville any chance I get. I love this estate, rivaled only by Lafarge for the top producer in Volnay.
But for all my waxing poetic on the good Marquis, I rarely get to offer out one of the region's finest sites: 2011 d'Angerville Les Caillerets - arguably the greatest, undeniably the rarest - offered today for just $114.95 a bottle.
There's no better way to underscore the rarity of this bottle than mentioning that there is just one other listing of 2011 Caillerets in the U.S.
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Of the four top sites in Volnay - along with Clos des Ducs, Taillepieds, and Clos des ChĂȘnes - Caillerets is by far the hardest to get a hold of. This is true with Lafarge as well, but especially for d'Angerville. If Caillerets doesn't get the same buzz as its 1er Cru peers, it's simply because there's not very much of it.
The supremely elegant Caillerets is the Grand Cru that Volnay never had. With all the force and strength of Clos des Ducs, it still manages the length and balance of Champans.This wine hits a point of absolute equilibrium: feminine but strict; soft-spoken and still quietly, rigorously intense.
This tiny plot, a mere .65ha, offers up a wine that is taut, profound, with a signature minerality reminiscent of wet, crushed up stones - caillerets are the small, light-reflective pebbles that make up much of this soil.
The pure, wonderfully terroir-expressive 2011 vintage was simply made for the elegance of Volnay. Suave and muscular, 2011 proved fantastic for all of the CĂŽte de Beaune, and the wines coming out of Volnay are true standouts.
Caillerets can be shy in its youth, another reason why it may be left outside of that Clos des ChĂȘnes-sized spotlight. But if Caillerets takes a while to reach its apogee, it will no doubt get there - and wow, will it be worth it. This wine has incredible aging potential.
To put this rarity in some perspective: There are exactly four bottles of any vintage before 2007 available in the entire country. The wine is that exceptional, that covetable.
Year after year, the wine sells out before we get a chance to write an email on it. I got my hands on a bigger parcel this year but even still, this wine will move. Please give us your ideal order, and we'll do our best.
To order, reply to offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Ian McFadden
Director, Fine & Rare Wine
Crush Wine & Spirits
Burghound: "This is less perfumed but more complex and broader as well with its expressive nose of red and black cherries, violets, plum, earth, spice and wet stone. There is excellent mid-palate concentration to the extract-rich medium weight flavors that also display fine vibrancy and punch on the firmly structured and ever-so-mildly austere finish. This is presently less refined than the Frémiets but even longer and I suspect that due to the strength of the underlying material that this will ultimately be the better wine in time."