Domaine Pierre Girardin Pommard 1er Cru "les Grands Epenots"

Pierre-Vincent Girardin launched his domaine in 2016 — at roughly 19 years old, 13th generation of a Burgundian winemaking family — and immediately broke from the extraction-heavy Pommard playbook by committing to 100% whole-cluster vinification (a practice formalised across his reds from 2021), minimal pigeage, and a cold cellar regime designed to preserve juice purity over power. Les Grands Épenots sits on the mid-slope of Pommard's most prestigious premier cru, where Jurassic marls and marly limestones at roughly 260 m elevation with east-to-south exposure produce a firmer, more structured Pinot Noir than the lighter soils of neighbouring Volnay — yet Girardin's low-intervention hand keeps that structure silky rather than muscular. The wine ages 12 months in standard 228-litre barrique at just 15% new oak, followed by 3 months in tank before bottling — a deliberately restrained wood regime that keeps the Épenots' iron-tinged marl character in the foreground rather than behind a veil of toast. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, timed to the lunar calendar, with minimal sulphur additions throughout — a transparency-first philosophy that few Pommard producers at this price point apply with such consistency. The 2022 vintage delivered generous, ripe fruit across the Côte de Beaune while retaining the freshness that Girardin's high-canopy vine training (1.60–1.70 m) is specifically engineered to protect; production per cuvée runs to approximately 1,400 bottles.