Guide
to the Loire regions
Côte
Roannaise
Grower
Profiles
Vincent
Giraudon
Vincent Giraudon’s family originate from Champagne.
His parents arrived in the region in 1981 and established the restaurant
Jacques Coeur on a corner of the main square in Renaison. His grandfather
was once sommelier at Maison Troisgros.
He was born in Renaison in 1982 and bought up in the family business where
he can still be found. After school, he studied viticulture at the lyceé
viticole in Macon and went on to work with George Paire at Domaine des
Pothiers for four years in order to gain some experience before creating
his own domaine in 2004.
At present, he rents 3.3 hectares of vines - the oldest being around 80
years old - from three separate growers in Ambierle and Villemontais, but
his intentions are to develop the domaine to a maximum of just 5 hectares,
in order that he can maintain the vines himself. He part owns one parcel
of 10 ares in Chagny at the
northern most part of the appellation, but will also establish a small
plot in Villemontais this year. Apart from planting Gamay he also intends
to experiment with a little Aligoté for Vin
de Pays. Everything here is harvested by hand, and yields to date have
been particularly low; just 30hl/ha in both 2007 and 2008.
Needless to say, he has a ready made market for his wines at the family
restaurant, but also sells to other restaurants around the region and to caviste’s
in Nantes and Auxerre.
WINE
OVERVIEW:
The wines are made in a corner of Emmanuel Guyots
cellar near to Villemontais, with everything produced by carbonic
maceration in concrete tanks. He ferments using 1515 yeast which is used
mainly for corsé styles, but is
adaptable enough to offer the resulting wines some primary red fruit
charm.
The 2008 vintage marked Vincent’s fifth harvest, with 2005 being the
first to be bottled. The 2007
was the most challenging year to date; he picked everything at the last
possible moment over a two day period. The benefit of hand harvesting was
that at least he could conduct a thorough triage
in order to eliminate the rot. He also made a little rosé for the first
time in 2008.
THE WINES:
Vincent’s wines falls somewhere between the two
styles; both fruity and robust. The 2005, his first bottling was a touch confit,
but dense and structured enough to suggest that this might still harmonise
with time in bottle. The 2006 was still a little young, but shows great
concentration combined with freshness and balance. The 2007 is, for the
year, a very good effort and probably the best single wine I tasted from
the vintage; full of bitter cherry and crunchy red fruit. It is already
approachable. It demonstrates what can be achieved if one is able to
harvest by hand in the more difficult years.
This likeable young man is clearly a talent worth watching over the coming
years and all three of his releases so far come highly recommended.
Vincent Giraudon
15 Rue de Roanne
Renaison
T: + 33 4 77 64 25 34
F: + 33 4 77 64 43 88
P: + 33 6 84 38 60 02
Vincent-giraudon@orange.fr
www.vincent-giraudon.com
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