2019 Montrachet Grand Cru

This year marked my first and long overdue visit to Vincent Girardin. There has been quite a convoluted change here. Vincent Girardin started his company in 1980 and in 2011 he sold his vineyards to FICOFI but sold the name to Boisset. Girardin’s son Pierre now has his own operation up in Nuits Saint-Georges, I hope to tasting those wines at a future date. Eric Germain is the current winemaker at the company Vincent Girardin and he greeted me at their spanking new, capacious facility in the industrial complex outside Meursault, virtually next door to Henri Boillot. In fact, it was so new I had to ask Germain to open the windows as my nose caught a whiff of emulsion. I began by asking him to clarify the set-up and he explained how they have expanded their holdings in recent years. “Although the name was sold to Boisset, we operate completely independently,” Germain insisted. “In 2011 we had only four oeuvres of vines in Meursault and we mainly bought grapes. I am more focused on the viticulture and wanted to have vineyards associated to the estate. Now we have 33 hectares: ten in Meursault, eight in Chassagne, two in Puligny and two in Saint-Romain. There is also 10 hectares around Pommard and Volnay, just a few in Savigny and Chorey-lès-Beaune.” I tasted through the entire range of 2019s and asked Germain for the background to the vintage. “We started the picking on 9 September and finished 22 September. The alcohol levels are 13.5-14.0° and the pH 3.15-3.20. We use a crusher/de-stemmer before a long pressing of around 2.5 hours and after two days we transfer into barrel. Fermentation is conducted only using natural yeasts. We have been biodynamic since 2016 and commenced ECOCERT certification from last year. The whites were taken from stainless steel except the Premier Crus from barrel. With respect to the reds, we did not have any problem finishing the fermentation. The level of alcohol for the reds is 13.5° to 13.7° without any adjustment. In 2019 we started the harvest with the reds rather than the whites. We have one vineyard manager for ten pickers, sorting tables and optical machines if necessary, though they were not needed. We are gentle with extraction and more focused on the quality of the grapes, using whole bunches for some of the cuvées [see tasting notes]. We did three or four pigeages and the same remontage over 3-4 weeks, more like an infusion.” This was a decent range of 2019s from Vincent Girardin, the highlight of the whites not the Montrachet as you might expect, rather their outstanding, tensile Bâtard-Montrachet. Also look out for a superb Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes and a Meursault Les Tillets. There was a little inconsistency brought about by the challenges of the growing season coupled with small quantities, which gave Germain fewer barrels to play with, not to mention that some cuvées like the rather soupy Clos Vougeot, that comes from purchased fruit, ergo is less under Germain’s control. Certainly, I found more to recommend among Girardin’s whites than reds, which occasionally I found rather stocky and lacked finesse, but otherwise this is an address that I look forward to returning to.