WTN: 1999 Vincent Girardin Volnay 1er Cru Champans

[David M. Bueker]

I last had this wine about 8 months ago from a friend's cellar, and it was a muddled, thick mess. This bottle is 180 degrees different from that one, so I can only chalk the prior experience up to some kind of damage. From the moment I opened this bottle I could smell warm earth mingled with red fruit and touched with spice. The balance is very fine, and there's plenty of fruit and structure to hold for several more years. Girardin gets knocked for being too modern sometimes, but while this may have a touch of wood it is still truly Burgundy at its core.

Girardin gets knocked for being too modern sometimes, but while this may have a touch of wood it is still truly Burgundy at its core.

And lots of folks have good things to say about their 99s. Almost bid on some half bottles of their 99 Clos St Denis last week but in the end decided not to.

Nice one David. I'm eyeing a bottle of one of Girardin's 2000 MSD 1er Crus in my basement as well - should open that some time soon. Glad to know there's plenty to look forward to despite the accusations of modernity.

[David M. Bueker]

Good point Rahsaan.

Girardin is interesting in that as a negotiant he only produces notable quantities of red wines in top vintages. So it's more likely his wines are going to be at least good. I own '99s, '02s and '05s, but until Salil mentioned his bottle I was not aware of 2000s in the USA.

David, I think that's a fairly recent development, I think up till about 2002 he made plenty of red in every vintage. Then I believe he made an announcement that he was switching to all white (except for the family estate in Santenay), but then changed his mind when 2005 rolled around.
I've seen 97, 98, 00, 01 reds.

[David M. Bueker]

I knew it was recent, but I didn't think it was that recent. Thanks for the clarification Dale.