2001 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru

Vintage 2002 brought elevated grape sugars, according to Girardin. The premier crus are 13.5% to 14% without chaptalization and the Bienvenue-Batard-Montrachet is 14.7%," he told me. He was still stirring the lees of certain cuvees at the end of May and planned to bottle all his 2002s prior to the 2003 harvest. Girardin continues to reduce his percentage of new oak; in 2002 it was about 80% for the grand crus and 40% for the premier crus. He actually cut his prices in Euros for the 2001s, but noted that there was increasing demand for the 2002s. Girardin told me he likes his 2002s and 2000s more than his 2001s and 1999s, owing to the purity of the fruit in the even-numbered years. Girardin recently purchased 10 of Henri Clerc's 15 hectares of vines; in 2001 he made wines from Clerc's must, but in 2002 he vinified the fruit himself. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; numerous Girardin wines, reportedly identical to the Vineyard Brands bottlings in the case of the whites, are also imported under the Baron de la Charriere label by European Cellars, Charlotte, NC)

Vincent Girardin, who plans to vinify his 2002s in the large new facility he has constructed outside Meursault, describes the young 2001 whites as "less acid than the 2000s, more flatteur and less minerally. A bit of noble rot gives the 2001s personality," he adds. In 2001 the reds are a bit fresher than the whites but in 2000 it the other way around. There not a big difference between the white wine villages in 2001," he told me, adding that in 2000 the wines from Puligny-Montrachet were particularly minerally. Grape sugars were typically high in 2001, and Girardin generally limited chaptalization to one degree or less. I tasted through Girardin impressive lineup of 2001 whites with his new enologist, Eric Germain, who previously had worked with Nuits-Saint-Georges-based enologist Kiriakos Kinikopulos. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; numerous Girardin wines, reportedly identical to the Vineyard Brands bottlings in the case of the whites, are also imported under the Baron de la Charriere label by Eric Solomon/European Cellars, New York, NY)