2015 Pommard Les Grands Epenots 1er Cru

Eric Germain, who began his career as a winemaker in 2002, calls 2015 “a great vintage . . . incomparable . . . above everything I’ve vinified until now.” The summer was not excessively hot, he added (“it was actually hotter in 2016 after mid-July”), and the vines did not suffer from drought. The Pinot Noir harvest began on September 3, and all of Girardin’s reds were picked with at least 13% potential alcohol, with virtually no sorting of the grapes needed.

“It was important not to overextract in 2015,” said Germain. The total cuvaison lasted four weeks, beginning with a cold soak of six or seven days. Germain carried out “light” punchdowns and pumpovers at the beginning of the fermentation, then a few “soft” pigeages toward the end “to polymerize the tannins.” Except for the estate premier crus from Chassagne-Montrachet, which I tasted from tanks, all of the wines were still in barrel, unracked, in November, and Germain expected to start bottling his reds in February. Germain used about one-third center-of-France new oak for all of the premier crus in '15.