Florent Garaudet Plus Incredible 2015 Vintage for Red Burgundy = Two Stunning Wines for Incredible Prices

Florent's 2015s Have the Structure to Age But Are Drinking So Well Now
Village Monthelie - Finesse of Volnay and the Power of Pommard
1er Cru "Les Champs Fulliot" - A Baby Clos Des Chenes With Same Soil
 - So Deep, Powerful and Etched the Wine is Almost Vivid Technicolor
 - An Insane Core of Fruit But Still So Balanced

As I've said before Florent Garaudet took a huge leap in his winemaking career with his monumental red 14s. He captured the vintage perfectly. It's tense yet full of crunchy fruit. The fruit is so refined and the breeding is different than other vintages. The wines exude class. The fruit is sappier, more pure, denser, more elegant. All of these things describe his 14s. Nothing prepared me for them. One of the biggest leaps in winemaking from one vintage to another that I've witnessed and I've witnessed lots.

Take that vintage leap and combine that with the sheer awesomeness that is 2015 and you have a
grand slam home run with the bases loaded. If Ted Williams would blather on and on and on about hitting, Florent is that way with his wines and his vineyards. And you know what, I could listen to both of them blather for days on end? The 15s here left me laughing how great they were. Florent's wines always need a few hours to breathe and in my humble opinion taste better on day 2. Vintage does not matter. 11, 12, 13 and 14 all are great here but they need one day to truly express themselves. But the 15s don't. Full stop. These are absolutely pop and pour and improve. The fruit in these is nuts. They are also darker than normal Florent wines but man forget the color they are monuments of Pinot Noir greatness. In 10 years we will be debating what is better, 14 or 15 at Garaudet.  Florent knows he has lighting in a bottle so raises his prices incrementally but they are still way way way cheaper than the 3-tier system which Florent goes through as well.

Up first is the magical 2015 Florent Garaudet Monthelie AC for $29.99 a bottle on a 4-Pack. This is just absurd. I thought it was Helios. Yes, his top end wine. It has a level of finesse and balance I usually don't associate with this cuvee. The nose was bursting with dark cherry fruit, complex spice and earth. But there is big and precise fruit aromas reminiscent of something much more refined. Quite an achievement. The balance is just extraordinary on the palate as there is so much rich fruit yet also balancing acidity and a lovely ripe chewiness.  The purity is up a notch again in 2015. It is super juicy and just electric. Like all the best cherries in the bowl exploding in your mouth at the same time. But there is also finesse. As Florent said it has the finesse of Volnay and the body of Pommard. This wine is blow your mind under $30 Village Burgundy from a great vintage. This is the strength of the vintage in my opinion.

Up next I have my favorite 1er Cru gem from Florent and that is the 2015 Monthelie 1er Cru "Les Champs Fulliot" for $37.99 a bottle on a 4 pack.  This is equal to the utterly brilliant 2014 albeit different in style. The wine drinks you. VIVID in all caps is what describes the  fruit on this wine to a T. The nose is huge. Bursting out of the glass. Big cherry. Bigger raspberry. Gobs of spice. Cloves. A deep imposing minerality as well. The palate is deep as deep can be. Like ocean deep. Elegant with a ripe and super serious structure and bursting with purity. The fruit on the palate is almost painfully sweet and yet the balance achieved here is crazy. When one has so much material to achieve this zen like balance is what makes this wine so special in 2015. There is an insane core of fruit. The wine is insanely concentrated but still light as a feather. So fresh. This is the biggest core of fruit I've ever encountered in a Garaudet 1er Cru. There is significant volume and amplitude on the palate. A mid palate one can get lost in, if not for the crescendo of a finish that is all sweet fruit and deep minerals. A wine that tells more and more of a story the more it ages. Right now it is like Lord of the Rings Chapter 1.


Champs Fuillot borders Clos du Chênes (to the West). The soil is very poor and rocky and the vines are 60 years old. This vineyard is like Clos des Chenes in that it is all rocky and also abuts it to that shows in the ridiculous minerality. This wine is especially epic in 2015. Like epic. Norwegian battle epic. This will age for 15-20 years easy. You know all of these collectors who show up at your house with a bottle of Chave that they bought for $15? Spend $37.99 for this, wait 15 years and you can be that guy.