The dark ruby-colored 1999 Maranges Clos Des Loyeres offers violet, candle wax, and sweet black fruit aromas. Medium-bodied, masculine, and extroverted, it is filled with loads of candied grapes, sweet cherries, and dark berries. This is a forward, in-your-face, lush, and softly textured wine. Drink it over the next 4 years. Bottled under the Baron de la Charriere label and imported by European Cellars, Eric Solomon, New York, NY; tel. (212) 924-4949

The dark ruby-colored 1999 Maranges Clos Des Loyeres offers violet, candle wax, and sweet black fruit aromas. Medium-bodied, masculine, and extroverted, it is filled with loads of candied grapes, sweet cherries, and dark berries. This is a forward, in-your-face, lush, and softly textured wine. Drink it over the next 4 years. Bottled under the Baron de la Charriere label and imported by European Cellars, Eric Solomon, New York, NY; tel. (212) 924-4949

The Maranges Clos Des Loyeres Vieilles Vignes has a ruby color and a blackberry-scented nose as well as a medium body, beautiful ripeness, and a silky texture. Tangy black currants, raspberries, and metallic flavors can be found in this charming offering. Drink it before 2002. The score, on a range and in parentheses, indicates that the wine was tasted from barrel. Vincent Girardin's 1996s are generally fresher and more supple than his 1995s, but are not as concentrated or structured. Since he personally prefers softer styled wines, Girardin prefers the 1996 vintage. My feeling is that many of his 1995s will develop better over time than these delicious mid-term drinking wine. Importer: as well as for the Maranges Clos Roussot and Pommard Vignots (I tasted neither),European Cellars (Eric Solomon, tel 212-924-4949), under the Baron de la Charriere label.

The medium-to-dark ruby-colored Maranges Clos Des Loyeres Vieilles Vignes (produced from vines over 70 years old) displays a super-ripe nose of candied strawberries, roses and toffee. A gorgeously explosive, concentrated, deep, beautifully balanced, medium-to-full-bodied wine, it also has a velvety character jam-packed with fresh bing cherries. This supple and sultry wine offers superb value. Drink it now to 2002. I was absolutely blown away by the quality of Vincent Girardin's red Cote de Beaunes at my April tasting in Washington. Whereas there is always an element of doubt concerning the end product when tasting out of barrel, what I saw from Girardin was already bottled and in retail stores throughout the US (all of them were tasted with the American importer and many were later re-tasted blind with other 95 Burgundies). These are superlative red burgundies with a superb rapport in quality and price. This estate's wines exhibit superb ripeness, outstanding balance, beautiful purity of fruit, extraordinarily well-integrated oak and tannin. In the top cuvees there is unsurpassed length. I know of no other producer/negociant in Burgundy that can deliver as broad a range of outstanding wines at such reasonable prices. Furthermore, Girardin, like Bernard Dugat in Gevrey-Chambertin, has worked hard to improve the quality of his wines. To top it all off, we can look forward to many more years of sublime wines from this estate/negociant as Girardin and his wife, Veronique, are quite young. If you love Burgundian reds, run, don't walk, to your wine merchant and purchase these dazzling wines. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel (205) 980-8802.

One of Burgundy's better values is the Maranges Clos des Loyeres, a cherry-scented and flavored, ripe, tasty, fleshy mouthful of Pinot fruit that is full of charm and character. Drink it over the next 5-6 years. Vincent Girardin, another member of a family with multiple cellars and labels, has clearly succeeded in taming the beastly tannin of the 1993 vintage. All of his wines exhibit excellent sweet, ripe fruit, supple, velvety-textured personalities, fine concentration, good vibrancy, and enough acidity and tannin to provide delineation and structure. Amazingly, Girardin was able to achieve far more ripeness and lower acidity than many of his peers.Importer: Vineyard Brands, Chester, VT; tel. (802) 875-2139