Clos des Ducs belongs to the d'Angerville family and nobody else — 2.15 walled hectares climbing the slope directly behind the family house, and the summit of the domaine's range. The soil is poor, stony and strongly calcareous on a steep southeast pitch, and it gives the estate's most structured, longest-lived wine: firmer and more upright than the perfumed charm Volnay is usually known for, and a clear step beyond the breadth of Champans or the village and premier cru bottlings below it. The domaine has been the reference point for precisely made Volnay since Sem d'Angerville began estate bottling in the 1920s, and it converted to biodynamics in 2006. 1998 was a tricky Burgundy year — a hot August, September rain, a narrow harvest window — but the successful wines came out with real color and structure, and structure is what this site has always had in surplus. Nearly thirty years on it is fully mature: savory rather than fruity, the tannins long since unwound, the underlying tension now the point. From a private cellar, ready to drink, and no need to overthink the decant.