One of the most historic of Burgundy, unlike some famous estates in the Côte de Nuits, it was owned by the royal Dukes (who later became Kings of France) rather than by the Church. The first record of the estate dates from an inventory of goods in 1507 taken by a royal officer that states “the King owns 52 undivided ouvrées of vines located “Sous Roiches” among a total of 275 ouvrées in Caillerets, Fremiet, Champans, l’Ormeau et Taillepieds. Some of these names, notably Caillerets, Champans and Fremiet are still in the possession of the domain and the most important climat is the Clos des Ducs “Sous Roiches” which has an area of 2.15 hectares. The Domaine Marquis d’Angerville is almost exactly the same today.
In 1906 Sem, Marquis d’Angerville bought the estate from his uncle, after phylloxera had ravaged the vineyard in the late 19th century. A former student of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he put all his efforts into restoring the domain and replanting the vineyards. An ardent defender of what he called “authentic wine”, he was very vocal about the fraudulent practices used by the Burgundy merchants of the time and as, in retaliation, they refused to buy his wines, he was one of the first growers to bottle his wines himself and sell them directly from the domain. Not surprisingly, he was a founding member, of the National Institute of Appellations of Origin, (INAO).
When Sem d’Angerville died in 1952, his son Jacques took over the estate. As passionate about quality as his father, Jacques d’Angerville was a tireless ambassador of the village of Volnay and his own wines. Very involved in the professional bodies of Burgundy, he was appointed president of the Interprofessional Committee of Burgundy Wines (the BIVB), participated in the creation of the University Institute of Vine and Wine in Dijon, of which he was the first President, was President of the Académie du Vin de France in the 1960s and a founding member of the Académie du Vin Internationale. Jacques died too young in 2003 after 52 harvests and a lifetime dedicated to Burgundy and the great wines of Volnay. His son Guillaume d’Angerville took over the domain in 2003, after his father and grandfather and is aided by the talented François Duvivier who joined him in 2005 and converted the estate to biodynamic farming in 2009.
Sem and Jacques d’Angerville had spent a great deal of time selecting the best Pinot Noir plants and limiting their yields. After decades of selection and observation an especially fine clone of Pinot Noir from the estate was christened «Pinot d’Angerville». The 15-hectare estate is managed with impeccable attention to detail both in the vineyard and cellar. After harvesting, the grapes go through a short cold maceration before being destemmed and fermented with gentle pumping over before being aged for 15 to 18 months in approximately 1/3 new oak barrels.
