Domaine Jacques Girardin Santenay Premier Cru Clos Rousseau 2021

Coming from a family of winemaking greatness, this Santenay 1er Cru Clos Rousseau is an incredible value in Red Burgundy, and perhaps even a candidate for buy of the year! It’s got it all... gloriously ripe and inviting fruit with all the feels of fine Burgundy, but with a modern and polished edge that we just love. Under $40 makes it all the more seductive!

In a time when red burgundy often fetches sales numbers in the high triple-digits, it’s becoming exceedingly rare to score some that’s both high quality and under $50, let alone under $100. To have this Premier Cru beauty for just $39.95 is a real treat, especially coming from the prodigious Girardin family. Jacques Girardin has been making wine from his 17-hectare domaine situated in Santenay starting in the late ‘70s, though his brother, Vincent, and father, Jean, have made great strides in Burgundy winemaking in their own rights. It seems the gift for glorious wine runs in the family, as Jacques’s wife, Valerie, and after a time working Australian vineyards, their son, Justin, have also joined his production team, helping to bring a modern edge to the estate’s greatly traditional wines.

Clos Rousseau is a nearly 24-hectare vineyard on the southern border of Santenary, close to Maranges. This wine in particular is plucked from a 1.92 hectare cru with limestone and marl soils growing vines an average age of 45 years old. The grapes are destemmed and lightly pressed before cool maceration in tank and fermentation using native yeasts. Gentle extraction follows, and the wine settles before being racked into barrels where malolactic fermentation takes place. The process culminates with aging on the lees over 15 to 18 months with 20% new French oak.

The sustainably grown and vinified wine comes together with a deep garnet purple hue and rich notes of dark fruits abounding – macerated black cherries, red currants, and juicy plums to make up the luscious core, with accents of violets and rose petals. Subtle undertones of thyme, black pepper, and a whisper of vanilla, with soft and dusty tannins, bring in complexity and balance for a generous and resoundingly delightful Red Burgundy that wildly punches above its price point. We are thrilled about this wine and can see it easily aging the next 10-plus years, if you can hang onto some that long! Do what you can to get a 6-pack of this – a case, if possible – and you won’t be disappointed!

PAIRING IDEAS: We’d eat anything with this plush Burg, but if we had to pick? Definitely this rich and punchy shaking beef with tomato rice recipe.