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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