2024 Pierre Girardin Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

Bâtard-Montrachet spans both Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet, two villages at the heart of Burgundy’s Côte de Beaune. Its vineyards lie just downslope from Montrachet and are dedicated to Chardonnay. Pierre Girardin’s 2024 Bâtard-Montrachet comes from this shared grand cru appellation, linking two celebrated white-wine villages. 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.