2024 Pierre Girardin Beaune 1er Cru "Les Epenottes"

I try not to say "next big thing" very often, as I tend to want to roll my eyes at myself, but I’m saying it here. Pierre-Vincent Girardin grew up in Meursault as the thirteenth generation of a winegrowing family (his father is Vincent Girardin), and in 2017, at 21, he started his own label with the family’s parcel of Puligny Les Folatières. The domaine is still only about 4.5 hectares, but his family’s connections bring him fruit most négociants would trade a kidney for: old-vine Bâtard-Montrachet directly across the road from Lafon’s Montrachet, plus Corton-Charlemagne, Clos des Chênes and a few barrels of Montrachet itself. The winemaking is the old school Meursault: whole clusters are brought to the press, after which fermentation occurs with native yeasts in big barrels, followed up by a year on the lees, minimal sulfur, and alcohol that runs low for the Côte de Beaune. When young, the wines show the flinty, struck-match reduction that fans of Coche-Dury and Roulot will adore, and with a few years that gives way to the vineyard characteristics of each site. Allen Meadows called him "a clear talent who bears watching carefully," William Kelley says few in the Côte de Beaune are making more of a stir, and Neal Martin tasted the Bâtard blind and gambled that it would age "like old Coche-Dury!" I’d rather be in before the scores, (and prices) catch up to the hype, so I’m putting my (okay, K&L’s) money where my mouth is. Grab a bottle, you won't regret it.