The ruby-colored Beaune Clos Des Vignes Franches offers cinnamon, gingerbread and raspberry aromas as well as a silky-textured, medium-to-full-bodied, well-delineated character filled with cherries, strawberries and traces of cookie dough. The marvelous flavors of this wine reminded me of a multi-red fruit cobbler sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar I used to eat at a diner in Nashville. Anticipated maturity: 1998-2004.
I was absolutely blown away by the quality of Vincent Girardin's red Cote de Beaunes at my April tasting in Washington. Whereas there is always an element of doubt concerning the end product when tasting out of barrel, what I saw from Girardin was already bottled and in retail stores throughout the US (all of them were tasted with the American importer and many were later re-tasted blind with other 95 Burgundies). These are superlative red burgundies with a superb rapport in quality and price.
This estate's wines exhibit superb ripeness, outstanding balance, beautiful purity of fruit, extraordinarily well-integrated oak and tannin. In the top cuvees there is unsurpassed length. I know of no other producer/negociant in Burgundy that can deliver as broad a range of outstanding wines at such reasonable prices. Furthermore, Girardin, like Bernard Dugat in Gevrey-Chambertin, has worked hard to improve the quality of his wines. To top it all off, we can look forward to many more years of sublime wines from this estate/negociant as Girardin and his wife, Veronique, are quite young.
If you love Burgundian reds, run, don't walk, to your wine merchant and purchase these dazzling wines.
Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel (205) 980-8802.
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