I am offered a good discount on some Vincent Girardin reds. Having only tried their whites before, I am a bit cautious. Any thoughts to share on their reds, especially their 05 Pommard Les Grand Epenots and 05 Volnay? Any input is appreciated.
I had an excellent '95 Pommard Rugiens V.V. from Girardin recently…
('95 Pommard Rugiens V.V., Girardin - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers)
but can’t think of anything from more recent vintages that I have tried, though I have a fair amount that I haven’t opened yet. I have a generally good feeling regarding his wines, though the vintage and vineyard would be important.
I usually buy wines in quantities of two or three bottles, and take into account past experiences and whatever notes might be available. I wouldn’t hesitate to try any Girardin wine where the vintage and vineyard appealed to me, but if the discount only applied to a full case and I couldn’t sample a bottle first, then I would hesitate, unless I had some very good tasting note(s) I felt I could trust.
I would expect his '05s to be quite good, based on the vintage alone.
I have had very limited experience, though have found the wines a bit oaky for my preference. I’ve bought some, especially at deep discounts, but often found I would have been happier to have spent the money elsewhere. Again, limited experience so take it with a grain of salt.
I would be tempted to sample a bottle of the volnay, see what you think before buying deeper.
I typically prefer the whites over the reds. We recently had the 05 BM, BBM and CM. all quite good and not overly oaked IMO. As for reds, I’ve not been much of a fan , however tried an 01 RSV recently that was pretty good. Interestingly this wine is young vine DRC RSV. I was not aware of that until recently.
The wines I’ve had have been ok but sort of lacking soul IMO. Buy Chevillon!
I’ve had a number of vintages and wines (both red and white) and really enjoy them. If you can snag them for a good price, I’d certainly go for it. I’ve really enjoyed both grand and premier crus.
I don’t own any and the ones I have tasted both white and red I have never been wowed by.
Pass.
while this may sound a bit dramatic, i’ve always put Vincent Girardin into the “soulless” camp of Burgundy producers…too much oak for me and too little sense of place.
Variable and average. Some very nice, some just blah. There’s a reason these are always on huge discounts everywhere (along with Mongeard-Mugneret).
W,
As far as I know, all of the red wines are negociant wines (other than a few cuvees from Santenay) and in my experience vary a good deal. I loved the '05 chambolle musigny, but others haven’t impressed me. The whites are a different story. Not much new oak; recent vintages keep getting better and better. I really like the corton charlemagne.
A
Funny coincidence, I haven’t been drinking enough red Burgs recently so today I asked my LWS owner who has a good stock for his favorite <$40 he’s had recently. He handed me the 07 Girardin Santenay 1er Cru Les Gravières Vieilles Vignes, saying it’s good for early consumption. So far I’ve been less than impressed, but I let the glass sit for a few hours and it only just started to shed a closed/acidic state so we’ll see how it is tomorrow. I had the 08 Meursault Les Narvaux towards the end of summer & liked it quite a bit.
I’ve heard that the 2001, 2002 Reds can be very good.
I place Mongeard Mugneret as a value producer.
Some of the wines have been great. a 2000 Grands Echezeaux, recently
I’ve enjoyed the whites and believe they represent good value. Never tried the reds but would welcome the opportunity.
I thought I heard somewhere that it was Potel who got the young-vines DRC RSV that year. Was that incorrect?
I’ve had more disappointments that thrills with Girardin reds so I don’t try many. But they made some very good wines in 1999.
In my experience, Girardin’s wines, while often a little oaky on release, tend to absorb their oak quite well after some ageing. Leaving wines that are mostly good, sometimes very good, but hardly great, though.
I was reading through this thread and wondering why so many people don’t like the reds. I’ve had some very good experiences with some great value wines. Almost all of them from… 1999. I guess I’ve been lucky.
Not sure on the Potel, but positive on the DRC…my source is an owner of a portion of RSV.
This forum is great! Thank you for all your comments.
Speaking of Potel, I’ve had very positive experiences (mostly reds) with occasional disappointments. To put things into perspective, how does Girardin compare?
Being worried about the negative opinions, I’ll try to find a bottle or two to try, but definitely not a case this time.