A Vintage to Collect from Our Most Purchased Burgundian Producer: JJ Girard's Spectacularly Dense 2016s

2016 Had Crazy Low Yields
 - The Wines That Were Made Have Incredible Depth/Density
 - A Vintage to Go Long - Terrific and Different

2016 JJ Girard Savigny Les Beaune 1er Cru "Les Rouvrettes"
 - Utterly Exuberant
 - Deep Penetrating Pinot Perfume on the Nose
 - Dense Red Cherries, Berries and Glorious Spice
 - Crazy Low Under 20 hl/ha Yields
 - Very Rare to Get Burgs of this Power and Quality Under $30

2016 JJ Girard Pommard VV
 - A Mammoth Old School Pommard with Girard Finesse
 - Deep, Dark, Dense Black Cherry and Berry Fruit
 - Gorgeous Pommard Aromatics
 - A Crazy Steal at $41.99 - This Will Beat Most Pommards Twice the Price
 - Easily 1er Cru Quality

Girard's 2016s
2016 really brought the struggle in the Côte de Beaune. With severe frost, many wines were just

simply not made, but the wines that were made have stunning quality as a result of the incredibly low yields. The quality of 16 is kind of like 10 in a way. Transparent and deep. Amazing fruit but also such distinctive site character. Girard made stunning wines. I mean the deepest, densest, most transparent wines he has ever made. These are big boys. The finesse is there but it's kept in hiding by the massive levels of deep, dark low yielding Pinot fruit. They will age gloriously. Longer than any Girard vintage by far. He raised some prices but mostly they stayed steady and were not like other staggering increases I saw. I'm upset that he has not made all his cuvees but what he has made are stunners. 

Fass List Favorite
We sell more Girard than anyone else and there is a reason. They punch way way above their weight, they are transparent and have wonderful, deep, fleshy ebullient fruit that is accessible to wine geeks and normal people alike. I love Girard. Every bottle is great. With short term aging they can become magical. I had a client whose Burgundy palate I respect immensely and he said that this estate reminds him of the serenity, purity and profundity of the great Jean-Marie Fourrier. That's high high praise!

Up first I have one of my favorite 1er Cru values in the whole book. The 2016 JJ Girard Savigny Les Beaune 1er Cru "Les Rouvrettes" can be had for $29.99 on a 4-Pack today. This wine is just exuberant right now and usually is the most forward of the Girard Savigny 1er Crus. It is wide open with a deep penetrating Pinot perfume. Red cherries and berries galore. There is almost a lipstick-like intensity to the pungency of the fruit.  One of those noses you can stand on a table with the glass being placed on the table and you can still smell the wine. (Don't try this at home.)  I am an expert at this type of smelling. There's glorious spice and all types of limestone minerality. Just an glorious perfume.  Despite it being ripe, there is grace and elegance aromatically. The palate is just unreal and by far the best of the 4-5 vintages I've tasted of Girard Rouvrettes. It's typically a cooler site and low yields of 2016 works so well here. Yields were very low on this. Under 20hl/ha. Which is nuts. Lush, plush, sappy and all brought together by awesome acidity and that hint, just hint of Savigny herbaciousness which I adore. The texture is like velvet yet it's structured, ripe and so sappy from the acids and thoroughly ripe fruit. The fruit is deep red and black cherries. But all the good, small tight cherries. This just explodes in one's mouth like a mouthful of those cherries right off the tree. Man is this vivid. This is much bigger than the 15 Rouvrettes. Wow, is this a value. Terrific balance and freshness and just explosive and oh so velvety. Super pure and sappy. Rouvrettes is clay/limestone and the vines are 40+ years old. Allen Meadows aka Burghound gave it 89 points and his review is below. I think this is a 91-92 point wine at least!!  Having said that some of the greatest wines I've had have been 89 point BH wines.

"An ultra-fresh if more restrained nose combines notes of both red and black cherry with those of spice, violet and a whiff of earth. The mouth feel of the medium weight flavors is slightly richer and finer with a bit more evident structure shaping the lightly stony and mildly austere finale. This will need a few years to better harmonize." 89 Pts Burghound

Up next I've got the 2016 JJ Girard Pommard Vieilles Vignes for $41.99 a bottle on a 4-Pack. This is the type of Burgundy that you can sock away for 10 years, bring blind to a tasting of much more expensive Burgundies and leave placing in the top 2 or 3. That's Girard for ya. I adore this Pommard as it brings the Girard refinement and Fourrier style to an appellation that has brash and guts. This is some amazingly refined and beautiful Pommard. BH gave it a 90 but I think it's a 93 point wine minimum. It's stunning. Very, very low yields. Stunning nose with deep bramble and black cherry fruit and darkest berry fruit one can imagine. Almost a cola like impression. Big time soil and sous bous and huge earthy impression. Nuances of earth, spice and a sense of deepness and freshness. So dazzling and so pure. It's a big big boy on the palate with insane density and structure and oodles of sappy dense and very old vine fruit character. It's stunningly fresh and balanced with insane levels of concentration and huge huge explosive fruit but backed by intense sense of soil and place. It's long like the big boys. This has serious serious persistence. Easily 1er Cru quality and the finest Pommard I've ever had from Girard. BH gave it 90 and his review is below. 


"A more complex if less refined nose speaks of intensely soil-inflected essence of dark berry fruit aromas that give way to textured and solidly concentrated medium-bodied flavors that possess a highly seductive sense of underlying tension that delivers excellent persistence on the ever-so-mildly rustic finish. This is a really lovely Pommard villages though one that will need the better part of a decade to arrive at its peak." 90 Pts Burghound

2016 JJ Girard Savigny Les Beaune 1er Cru "Les Rouvrettes"- $31.99 ($119.96 4-pack) 

2016 JJ Girard Pommard Vieilles Vignes - $43.99 ($167.96 4-pack)