I'm an unabashed wine geek. I wear it proudly on my sleeve. And as a geek I love geeky things. For the circumstances that pertain to this email, and for the sake of brevity, I will explain why Pernand is geeky and not all wine, or in this case Burgundy is geeky. Pernand is a village in the Cote de Beaune and most importantly it has village wines, a ton of 1er Cru wines and Grand Cru wines. But the geeky part is mostly that Pernand is slightly off the beaten path in the Cote de Beaune. There is Pommard, Volnay and even the Beaune wines are better known than Pernand. Pernand is slept on and as a result it is a terrific value and because it is a great value and you have to know to know, it's a geek wine. While everyone is oohing and aahing over Volnay/Pommard and fancy Beaune 1er Crus (and are they really better than certain Pernand 1er Crus?), I'll be happy as a clam sitting in my corner drinking Pernand 1er Cru from Girard and geeking out. It is market inefficiency in a bottle and inefficiency never tasted so good.Today's wines are special to and this specific 1er Cru is even more special to me as it is the 4th It is the 2015 Jean Jacques Girard Pernand Vergelesses 1er Cru "Les Vergelesses" for as little as $29.99 on a 4-pack. This is 92 points Burghound. Let me get straight to the point. The wine is unbelievable and is one of the best expressions of Pernand one can get and frankly one of the best Pinot Noir values from 2015 anywhere. It's like a baby Corton. Especially in 2015, with its wonderful purity, freaking ridiculous fruit, depth, aromatic complexity and freshness. I adore this wine. I've been selling wine for a while now and I can't remember 92 BH and $29.99 for a Red Burgundy ever. Well except for last year's version of this wine. JJ Girard raised his prices and I didn't and squeezed my margins more to keep it under $30. White Burgundy, sure, but red, no way. Ever. Girard is an experienced wine maker. And I've always loved his wines but something happened and in 2015, the wines went from great to miraculous. In warm vintages the outer off the beaten path appellations always provide insane value. Stunning, stunning deep pinot fruit with perfect balance. It's so loaded with fruit it's silly how fun and deep and yet serious this is all at the same time. The nose has darker than normal cherries, and more lift and waft than the 2014. Palate is ridiculous with painfully intense juicy red cherries, framed by spices and so much freshness. Great freshness actually. There is huge volume and an amazing dark red/black fruit crunch. It's so ripe yet so succulent. It's insanely good. I've never had a warm vintage here and man it really works well at Girard. The finish is long and clinging with beautiful ripe and juicy tannins and epic sap. Just an epic bottle. It will and can age for 15+ years but man this will KILL young.
vintage of this great wine and one of the best value plays in all of my Burgundy book that I've worked with.
Below is Allen Meadows' review.
"Once again the moderate amounts of wood and menthol scents serve as the backdrop for the cool red cherry, violet and earth-scented nose. The sleek and tautly muscular flavors are also quite serious and although the supporting tannins are dense, they're relatively fine and as such this manages to avoid being unduly rustic and youthfully austere on the sneaky long finish. This is really very good and worth considering though once again I underscore that at least some patience will be highly beneficial." 92 points, Burghound
This is as good if not better than the magnificent 2012. This is an absurd price for a wine from a great vineyard and the Les Vergelesses is indeed that. The wine is multi layered and complex aromatically and has all the markings of a wine from a special site. Ile de Vergelelesses gets all the fame but Les Vergelesses is like the little brother who is so close but just falls a tad short but sometimes when you least expect it he will out perform the older brother. Ile de always needs time to integrate and develop, whilst Aux or Les Vergelesses (some people use Aux and others use Le) is a puppy wanting to impress a new owner, though the '15 COULD use some time. Full of complexity and fruit, even in a vintage like 2014 from the get go. This really rocked.
Up next is arguably one of Girard's longest aging reds. I think the '11 is the only one that is somewhat approachable now. I think '12 and '13 and '14 need more time. The wine is the 2015 JJ Girard Pernand Vergelesses 1er Cru "Les Fichots" for as little as $29.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. This wine Burghound rated a 91 and called it an Outstanding Top Value. $29.99 and 91 pts for a brilliant bottle of red Burgundy that will age for 15-20 years. Where do I sign up? Big and intense, earthy, leafy, cherry lipstick, mossy and brambly red fruits on the nose. Huge fruit as well. I mean big dark cherries. Amazing fruit for a young Fichots. Terrific texture with brilliant 2015 ripeness and unreal depth and earthy sweet fruit for a young Fichots. More open than ANY young Fichots I've ever had. Really stunned me and I made a remark how accessible this was. Massively juicy with terrific length, depth, oodles of sweet and ripe tannin, witty concentration and power all accentuated by a nice and deep spice. There is a serious super deep core here. Outrageous wine. My favorite Fichots ever. But you must have patience for it to turn into what it should. There are unique tannins that come from this very specific rocky soil. Very juicy. Very long. Acidity is pitch perfect. Freshness and lovely persistence. Stunning inner mouth aromas. Big structure as always with Fichots suggests 15-20 years of life. While Burghound thinks you should start drinking this in 2020 I'll say 2019 as I can handle a bit of tannin. The soils of "Les Fichots" have large round stones and are extremely hard and deep which results in a very structured deep wine that takes time to express itself. I adore this wine because it is such an awesome value for what results in a baby Corton if you have patience. Below is BH's note.
"A completely different aromatic profile presents much more sauvage-suffused aromas of pungent earth, forest floor and ripe red berry fruit nuances that are also trimmed in noticeable wood and menthol. The succulent and generous yet entirely serious middle weight plus flavors possess fine mid-palate concentration along with much more prominent supporting tannins on the focused and lingering finale where a hint of rusticity arises. This is really quite good and recommended provided that you have the patience to allow for at least 5 years or so of cellaring." 91 pts BH
2015 JJ Girard Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru "Les Vergelesses" - $31.99 ($119.96 4-pack)
2015 J Girard Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru "Les Fichots" - $31.99 ($119.96 4-pack)
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