Medium-plus yellow. The nose is dense and ripe at the core, but a mix of floral and savoury notes makes this quite complex and interesting. In the mouth there’s decently textured impact and good mid-palate dimension. It doesn’t really seem to want for acidity. Tasty enough that the bottle didn’t last very long!
Girardin Vincent
2003 Girardin Vincent Chevalier-Montrachet
And what an impressive bottle – and I mean the bottle – a super-deep punt and heavy glass. On pouring, nothing untoward on the colour, but the nose has the first whiffs of oxidation – annoying rather than destructive. Across the palate this is certainly balanced enough and displays a generous extra mass versus the 03 Girardin Charlemagne, the texture is good too. Unfortunately this is linear and young – tasty but little overt complexity – just what you don’t want to hear after the oxidative hints on the nose. That’s a shame, as non-oxidising bottles won’t be anywhere near peaking in the next 5 years…
2003 Girardin Vincent Corton-Charlemagne
Deeper yellow. The nose is dense and more obviously displays ripe fruit. In the mouth it’s well textured, even slightly oily, and suddenly widens to great effect in the mid-palate. A perfect wine for sipping alone – it just needs a little extra acidity to lift it to the next level – but finishes well.
1999 Girardin Vincent Chambertin Clos-de-Bèze
Deep colour. There’s deeply toasty and creamy black fruit on the nose. Primary, painfully intense fruit with excellent acidity and buried tannins. Excellent but very hard to drink right now – I’d guess that you need another 7 or 8 years before this wine starts to bloom – but bloom it will. Very impressive wine.