I've been enjoying some better wines recently. Meaning wines that are worth writing about. Not because of price or pedigree. They just strike me as worth time and words.
So it is with the 2002 Vincent Girardin Rully 1er Cru Les Cloux, from the Côte Chalonnaise. Yes, that same tidy locale as last week's 2004 A. et P. de Villaine Bouzeron Aligote.
Rully is known for white wine from the chardonnay, and a fair amount of red from the pinot noir. This of course is the white, and what a nice, mature bottle of little white Burgundy it is.
Pale gold in color, the wine at first seemed a little tired. With air and especially with dinner centered around a delicious fresh corn soup, nice scents of red apples and sweet cream butter emerged. This wine is certainly maturing, but it's in a nice place if you have any.
The wine is brightly acidic in the mouth, with lemon, red apple and soft oak tones. Initially it seemed a bit sour, but again air and food revealed something more youthful and long flavored.
I'd heard Girardin had sworn off red wines to focus on whites alone. Turns out that's not true, but I must say I've always preferred the whites I've tried to the reds.
I'll never forget the '99 Girardin Santenay Les Gravieres I tried blind and thought was an herbal Napa cabernet. Pleasant red wine, but not red Burgundy. And before you jump all over me, yes, that isn't exactly top shelf stuff. But it makes the point, when compared to this equally humble white Burgundy, maybe the whites are where it's at with this producer. Just saying.
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