Domaine Pierre Girardin Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru "Les Pucelles" (Magnum) (1.5 L)

Pierre-Vincent Girardin launched his domaine in 2016 at roughly 19 years old — the 13th generation of a Burgundian family — and immediately broke from the richer, oak-forward Meursault tradition by fermenting whites in custom 456-litre barrels (double the Burgundy-standard 228-litre pièce), a deliberate engineering choice to halve wood-to-wine contact and keep terroir signal dominant over cooperage influence.

Les Pucelles sits on the southern flank of Puligny-Montrachet's premier cru belt, its Jurassic marly limestone soils at roughly 260 m elevation producing Chardonnay of pronounced salinity and tight mineral architecture — conditions that reward Girardin's low-interventionist hand far more than a richer, bâtonnage-driven style would allow.

Indigenous yeast fermentation proceeds in those oversized François Frères / Seguin-Moreau barrels at 30% new oak, with no bâtonnage and minimal sulphur additions; 12 months on fine lees in barrel are followed by 6 months in stainless-steel tank before bottling. The wine is released unfined and unfiltered, with bottling dates timed to the lunar calendar.

The magnum format is the special feature: the larger volume-to-surface ratio slows oxidative exchange through the cork, preserving the crunchy, electric acidity that defines this cuvée for a measurably longer arc than a standard 750 ml.

The 2021 vintage — ravaged by spring frost across Burgundy, yields severely curtailed — produced whites of exceptional concentration and nerve; the reduced crop load intensified the site's characteristic tension. Drink 2026–2038.