Vincent Girardin 2016 Pommard, Les Vieilles Vignes

The history of Maison Vincent Girardin is relatively recent. In 1980, at the age of 19, Vincent Girardin, the son of a family of winegrowers based in Santenay since the 17th century, decided to strike out on his own and began producing wine from five acres of vines that he had inherited from his parents. Today, the owners continue to uphold the quality and style of the wines with unique offerings like this old vines Pommard. The grapes for this wine are sourced from select vineyards in the celebrated village of Pommard.

Limestone soils with a little clay and good southeast exposure insure ideal conditions for Pinot Noir. The old vines or “Vieilles Vignes” average 65 years of age. They are guyot pruned, trellised and subject to thinning to further reduce yields. The grapes hand harvested and are sorted twice (when picking the grapes and on the sorting table) then partially de-stemmed and put in stainless steel thermo-regulated tanks. The alcoholic fermentation can begin with natural yeasts from the grape berries and continues for around three weeks. Very soft pumping-over is employed in order to get the purest expression of the Pinot Noir fruit, followed by soft pressing. The wine is put in French oak barrels, 15% for new. For aging 14 months on the fine lees.


They follow the lunar calendar for the bottling without fining and filtering. Pommard is bottled when the moon is down. Wine Spectator scored this 91 points saying "Intense strawberry, cherry and floral flavors are matched up against a taut structure in this compact red. Balanced, with a long if slightly austere finish today. Needs time to relax. Best from 2021 through 2035."