Tasted with Eric Germain (left), pictured with Marco Caschera in Meursault, 12 October 2023.
Domaine Vincent Girardin
“Les Champs Lins”
BP 48
21190 Meursault
Tel: +33 3 80 20 81 00
http://www.vincentgirardin.com
More reports with Domaine Vincent Girardin
Eric on 2023:
“I came back from holiday and the red grapes were enormous – what can we do with those? But the heat at the end of August and start of September was almost a natural saignée – not all the grapes looked so great – still 14° – the first tests might indicate 13.1° but hidden in the bunches were more shriveled grapes with much more sugar. Around 11-12 September we had a little rain. ”
Eric on 2022 versus 2023:
“22 had some similarities to 23 – starting 25 August in this case – less volume. No chaptalisation and no acidification in 22 – the fermentations took a little longer in 22 – most of the 23s will already be done in December – some already are! We’ve used a lot less sulfur in 22 – it’s been a test – but I don’t see a big impact at this stage. For the whites we can do the same in 23 but for the reds I worry about brett and we also destemmed 100% – the seeds were very ripe for the reds but less-so the stems so I used a more standard amount of sulfur. Rightnow, 22 is about immediate pleasure but it’s a vintage where you should serve the wines at the right temperature – warm – despite what people say – you are going to find the wines losing tension and becoming too louche for what you’ve paid !!”
The wines…
An address that never seems to disappoint – red or white – many cuvées that would be worth your time to make a special search for your cellar !!
2022 Meursault Les Tillets
Domaine, biodynamic, direction Javiller and Roulot, mid-parcel. About 50 year old vines
Plenty of colour. Perfumed and faintly spiced – that’s a great start. Round with good energy. The fruit is ripe but there’s plenty of energy – not incisive but absolutely delicious.
2022 Meursault Les Casse-Têtes
More airy perfumed – that’s very lovely. A little more structure and intensity – plenty of citrus – sweet finishing also a very good wine – and more impressive finishing.
2022 Meursault Narvaux
Half from domaine the rest from bought grapes, the latter conventionally farmed but with very few treatments and ploughed. More chalky here. The previous were fined this not yet
Tighter top notes but broad at the base with ripe yellow citrus. Very different, a wine that you sink into, a certain cushion but also layers of more finely balanced flavour – practically juicy finishing – the fruit a little more golden today. A great finish!
2022 Meursault-Blagny 1er
More open higher tones – still with a spicy suggestion of Meursault. Hmm – direct, silky, with a fine leading-edge of juicy flavour. That’s a super finish! – I love this! And like a bunch of these with a faint finishing tannin.
Three biodynamic parcels all in the top part – 40-50-year-old vines.
Broader, even a suggestion of minerality in these aromas. Mouth-filling – generous but not fat – long and broad finishing with a little cream today. Full and brilliantly delicious – that could be a special one!
2022 Meursault 1er Les Genevrières
One parcel at the top with vines that are 60 years old, and are showing a little degeneration in one part of the vines (yellow vines, low yielding)
More airy aromatic – slowly suggesting some floral notes too. Vibrant – such super energy here – a dynamic wine and also a delicious wine – more saline too. Simply excellent – maybe more!
2022 Meursault 1er Perrières
All organic, one part in the middle, the other next to Clos de Perrières – a little more than 1 ha in total, some missing plants so a low yield.
More direct and showing a little extra muscle too. Also vibrant but with a little more concentration behind it. Impressive wine.
A higher-toned and instantly more approachable nose. Mouth-filling and vibrant – this is just so welcoming and already seemingly ready to drink – simply delicious – bravo!
2022 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er La Romanée
This together with Caillerets harvested 1 week later than most, part harvested by Giradin.
An open and interesting nose today – not so incisive. Great energy and shape in the mouth though – this structure is fine and the flavour slowly fading. That could be excellent…
A shy nose today. Hmm – breadth and volume, growing in intensity, layers of flavour no hint of fat – just energy and intensity of great flavour – finishing flavour too – even with this modest nose – bravo!
They buy these biodynamic grapes and the team here have done all the vineyard work for 2 years. 0.30 ha
A more open and airy nose. In the mouth this melts wonderfully well over the palate. A calmer version of the Caillerets but missing nothing – a hyper-complex and delicious thing. Potentially a great 1er cru!
2022 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Champsgain
More open higher tones – perhaps a faint mineral-reductive suggestion too. Mouth-filling with a little structure and vibrant flavour once more. A wide wave of finishing flavour, delicately citrussy and gorgeous!
2022 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Pucelles
Good width, here with an extra hint of sweetness. Here we have volume and density wrapped with juicy fruit – the middle and finish have depth and lots of complexity – super Puligny-style finishing energy in this burst of flavour – another great finish!
The cliché elegant floral aromas of Folatières – a beauty! Round but with shimmering energy too – always elegant, always floral – I love this – it’s less intellectual than some but it’s a wine to sink into and appreciate! Bravo!
2022 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Combettes
A super-attractive fresh width of aroma. Great shape and a more driving direct style here. Mineral, classy, layered flavour – I simply love this – richer today but excellent with some chance for greatness – the finish is just so persistent.
2022 Corton-Charlemagne Quintessence
A broad freshness. Larger scale flavours, obviously mineral – growing in intensity and tension – and rather elegant rather than powerful – but this finish is so captivating!
An all biodynamic, a single parcel, just one barrel – half the vines have been pulled out so it’s hard.
Broad like the Charlemagne but still a little shy – mainly a higher, more perfumed, tone. Hmm – how this captivates the palate, it fills the centre stage but pushes the limits of the palate. The finish with a reprise of salinity and a sustained width. I think the word here, the simple word, is class!
2022 Bâtard-Montrachet
The same stage of elevage – a shy nose at the top but here is breadth of aroma at the base. Larger in scale and a little more energetic. You could say louder and less ‘classy’ than the Bienvenues today – yet there is so much here – a more powerful finish and a tidal wave of flavour to remember it by – so similar yet so different.
Larger scale and much more open than all the previous aromatics. Here is a more floral flavour profile with the class of the Bienvenues yet almost the energy of the Batard – it is that happy blend of the two. Open, clean finishing – does it ever really finish? – I ask my self rhetorically. I think the Bienvenues my favourite today, the Batard in 7-8 years and this anytime!
Les Reds
Some were used in most wines. Almost all these vines are worked by the domaine:
2022 Monthelie 1er Sur la Velle
Second vintage – the other side of the road from Clos des Chênes
Hmm – what a fine broad sweep of pretty – and complex – fruit. Mouth-filling generous on one hand but properly structured on the other – that’s a simply delicious – very fruit – wine. It’s simply excellent.
2022 Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Marconnets
Narrower but higher tones, more herb – fine herb – here. Also more direct, incisive structural wine – by comparison a little more austere today – but you need only wait 2-3 years – this has a good finishing fluidity to the flavour – it will be be a fine Savigny!
2022 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Morgeot Fairendes
All the work done by the team from here – not yet in biodynamics as the owner doesn’t want it. All destemmed here.
Almost some structure to this fresh and clean nose – there’s depth and a very engaging complexity to this darker fruit. Mouth-filling with a subtle frame of slightly drying tannin today – though no grain. Finishing broad and tasty – lovely wine!
2022 Beaune 1er Les Aigrots
Hmm – this is not the most forceful nose but there’s a width of fine, elegant, red fruit. In the mouth we have volume and growing intensity of red fruit again – here with a little cherry stone complexity. The perfect balance between structure and flavour – I love it!
Also fully destemmed.
The most perfumed and precise of these wines so far – dark fruit, sleek and classic for Epenots. Hmm – broad over the palate with 1 or 2 mm of cushion to the texture – but simply gorgeously flavoured. That’s a great 22!
2022 Volnay 1er Santenots
Santenots mainly from Plures and Blancs – over 2 hectares of old vines from 1965 and 1975. ‘Usually with very small grapes and all biodynamic.’ All whole cluster.
Lighter colour – though plenty. Another quite open nose of red fruit and and an airy perfume. Properly structured – its Santenots! But there’s depth and complexity and even perfume to these flavours – a wine to keep back a while – but 5 years is plenty. Delicious wine!
Close to Pommard Rugiens, planted in the early 1970s, always organic and for the last 4 years, biodynamic. Like the last wine – 100% domaine produce.
Here the perfume of stems overlays the pretty darker-red fruit. Ooh! I love this shape – some structure and lots of depth to the flavour. Broad and complete in the middle and finishing flavours. That’s a wine worth searching for!
Once a purchase contract, today domaine. Vines cultivated organically since 1950! Biodynamic for the last 5 years. Also completely destemmed.
Higher toned berry fruit sweeps across the horizon with this aromatic. Again a wonderfully shaped wine with more fluidity to the flavour. Even more textural class than the Pitures – the complexity and flavour just different. Another great wine worth a search!
50% whole cluster as in-part they needed extra volume in their fermentation tank!
Fine freshness here and fruit that’s not particularly dark. More density to this flavour than most previous wines – a leading saline edge to the flavour too. Really impressive multi-dimensional flavours in the middle. I almost never say bravo for Clos des Chênes but in this case… Bravo!
2022 Corton Perrières
Vines close to Charlemagne, ‘conventional culture but old vines that bring a lot of minerality.’ Always very small grapes here.
A very fine and complex width of aroma – quite elegant for Corton! Direct, sleek, but growing wider and more intense over the palate – quite an open delivery of the flavour here. A burst of fine finishing interest – today despite ‘more’ in multiple dimensions/directions – I prefer the ‘completeness’ of a number of previous wines but here’s an elegant Corton.
Vines next to Grand Maupertuis – still another 6 months of elevage for this…
Ooh – now that’s a nice nose – seamless, almost silky – yes! In the mouth we’ve a breadth of flavour – structural for sure – as it should be. But this complex wine stops short of austerity. The finish is broad, sustained, and really complex – almost chewy – that’s an excellent CV and potentially a great one.