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Domaine/Maison Vincent Girardin

This rather high-tech negociant operation in the sleepy village of Santenay has quickly become a source of consistent, cleanly made Burgundies, red and white. (In November, I focused on red wines, and my comments below pertain to the reds.) The dynamic Girardin knows exactly what he wants: spotless wines from healthy grapes, vinified for easy drinking. "Each wine has its place," he explains. "The Cote de Beaune is not generally an area that produces wines for long aging, like the Cote de Nuits or Bordeaux, and it a mistake to vinify here for excessive structure. I don't like severe wines, so for me 1996 is a perfect vintage." Girardin buys only grapes, not must; following 100% destemming, he chills the must to ensure an extended cold soak (typically 8-12 days). He uses the same commercial yeast for all of his wines. Total cuvaison lasts a relatively long 26 days, with the fermentation temperature rising to 38oC during the last two days prior to the pressing "to extract good tannins." He has discontinued manual pigeage which he felt had a tendency to be a bit too energetic, breaking too many grapes and speeding fermentation. Now his stainless steel tanks are equipped with a robot arm that does a three-minute pigeage once a day at the beginning of fermentation but increasing to three times a day at the hottest point. Girardin uses enzymes to clarify the reds at the end of the pressurage and is thus able to bottle the wines without fining or filtration. "All my wines are vinified exactly the same way," he points out. "Thus all differences between the wines are differences of terroir " levage takes place in one-third new, one-third one-year-old and one-third two-year-old barrels. Girardin prefers to bottle early: a couple of the '96s were already finished, and most of the rest were in stainless steel tanks awaiting bottling. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; some cuvees also imported by Eric Solomon/European Cellars, New York, NY under the Baron de la Charriere label)

From 1996 and 1995 Red Burgundies (Mar 1998) by Stephen Tanzer

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1996 Santenay Les Gravieres

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Color: Red

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Domaine/Maison Vincent Girardin

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