2000 Pommard Les Grands Epenots 1er Cru

Girardin is that rare bird among Burgundy's energetic new negociants he realized early on that the road to success involved refining his sources of fruit and his winemaking technique, as opposed to simply expanding his purchases and production. As of now, Girardin buys nearly all grapes, as opposed to must, for his reds. He would rather make a smaller number of large cuvees often by blending from two or more sources, than a large number of tiny lots, as negociants like Nicolas Potel and Dominique Laurent do. He has cut the percentage of new oak used for his Cote de Nuits wines from 100% to 70% and reduced his extractions, getting a bit less color but also less tannic clout. My clients seem to be liking new oak less and less," he explained. They'd rather find the taste of the vineyard." According to Girardin, the grape skins were thicker in 2001 than in 2000, with more polyphenols, but sugars were generally lower by one-half to three-quarters of a degree. Girardin made relatively few Cote de Beaune reds in 2000 and 2001, concentrating instead on the best terroirs of the Cote de Nuits. In 2001, he blended most of his domain Santenay holdings into a single bourgogne rouge Girardin exports a good 30% of his production to the U.S., including nearly 50% of his top crus. I tasted this year in Girardin's spacious new facility on the outskirts of Meursault. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; some Girardin wines are also imported under the Baron de la Charriere label by European Cellars, Charlotte, NC)

For the first time, Vincent Girardin did a serious green harvest in 2000 on the plots of vines from which he buys fruit (in 2001 he went a step further, pulling leaves on 18 hectares of pinot noir vines). Girardin used reverse osmosis to concentrate a number of his 2000s from the Cote de Beaune, in an attempt to eliminate excess water that resulted from the storm that occurred just before the harvest. Still, grape sugars were fairly high in 2000, although lower than those of the previous year. As at many other addresses, the young 2000s here showed strong oakiness (as well as a pronounced element of chocolatey torrefaction); in a few cuvees the combination of new oak and concentration through reverse osmosis seemed to exaggerate the wines' tannins. Girardin planned to begin bottling the 2000s in January, a bit earlier than past practice. The Cote de Beaune wines were in cuve at the time of my November tasting, but the grand crus from the Cote de Nuits were still in barrel, unracked. (Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; some Girardin wines are also imported under the Baron de la Charriere label by European Cellars, New York, NY)