Tasted in Nuits St.Georges with Thibault Liger-Belair, 28 May 2024.
Domaine Thibault Liger-Belair
32 rue Thurot
21700 Nuits St.Georges
Tel: +33 3 80 61 51 16
www.thibaultligerbelair.com
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More reports with Domaine Thibault Liger-Belair
Thibault on 2022:
“22 was lovely but we were surprised by the amount of grapes – I had to add a second team of pickers as we would have been picking too long, hence, too ripe. Parts of the cellar were 4 barrels high… I wasn’t that happy with the vintage at the beginning though, as all the wines had a common taste – what was their identity? It was June and mainly after the 2023 harvest where I saw enough identity from the wines. I find it a good modern classic which may be a prototype for many vintages in the future – but it needed ageing to separate out the differences. The Beaujolais and other entry wines have just in the last days been bottled so don’t want to show them until 5-6 months afterwards. So the wines we taste are those that are either racked into tank or still in barrel – but none that are bottled.”
Thibault’s changes this year:
“I have new bottles this year – not just to better accommodate the 54mm corks – no more synthetics – but also 120 grams less weight per bottle. They are still over 500g but given a production of 200k bottles – that’s more than 20 tonnes less glass that I’m going to be shipping. I’ve also stopped washing my barrels – I prefer to keep the lees in them rather than have them empty and give a small sulfur treatment. I love my barrels but don’t like to taste the barrels – that’s why I have my own oaks and choose the trees for the barrels at the end of each year.”
The wines…
As I have come to expect – beautiful wines chez TLB this year – bravo – a producer who is never happy to sit on his laurels… “I’m a searcher, I’m always looking to do better and reacting to what’s new – sometimes I want grass between the vines, other times I take it away – we have to adapt.”
2022 Bourgogne Grands Chaillots
A sample taken off the bottling line while I was there – From the bottom of Nuits 1ha, 2ha near Chamblle and another 1 ha of vines in the Hautes Côtes de Nuits – 450m high and more limestone.
A pretty and direct red fruit – a little vibration of energy. Width and sweetness but good texture too – becoming velvety as the tiny grain of tannin shows. Very red fruit and modestly structured. This is most impressive in the finishing structure and length. That’s a great finish, faintly perfumed too…
2022 Côte de Nuits Villages Lurey
Vines opposite Clos de Marechale and Clos l’Arlot – planted in 1937.
Really perfumed – with a little pine and whole cluster too. Bright, intense – clarity of flavour, less grain to the tannin – sappy energy. Not to influence – told at the end 15% – but this aromatically might hint to that whole cluster but hardly anywhere else. I really love the shape and volume of this excellent flavour.
2022 Nuits St.Georges Les Charmottes
From the Vosne side of the town, next to 1er Cru Bouselottes. Here there’s 40-50cm of clay, rich in iron too, with the first layers of degraded limestone.
A more cushioned and floral nose – darker fruit evident. Supple, cushioned – a generosity to this depth of flavour. Really beautiful finishing intensity of flavour – that’s simply an excellent wine – I love it…
To the south, just under Pruliers. Almost 70-year-old vines. here since 2018, the only vines of the domaine that were touched by hail in 2022 so hardly any stems.
Deeper, darker and more precise red fruit. Extra width, a small, 2 or 3 mm of cushion. Sappy and intense, direct and still intense. Wait a little longer than the previous but this is potentially a great villages.
1.4 ha. 3rd vintage, Brochon side. No wc here – ‘the soil is not deep enough and there is enough energy already.’
A wide but not large red fruit nose – so beautifully of whole cluster yet there is none! Fluid, melting, delicious – not a big Gevrey but still a great one !!
2022 Chambolle-Musigny Vieilles-Vignes
5 different parcels with plenty of wc. The oldest vines from the 1950s.
A more direct and impressive intensity of perfumed dark-red fruit. Larger in scale and larger in depth and density of flavour too – but still with layered but energetic flavour. Sappy, ultra-impressive finishing – always changing – it seems to be a great vintage in this cellar…
2022 Vosne-Romanée Aux Reas
The meeting of the two combes – Nuits and Vosne. ‘No wc in this very limestone place.’
More direct with a hight-toned energy – with a slightly, Vosne, granular complexity of aroma. Supple, gorgeously velvet tannin with some counterpoints of modest bitters in the finishing flavours. Beautiful…
2022 Charmes-Chambertin Aux Charmes
From Aux Charmes opposite the border between Latricières and Chambertin – late 40s vines with tiny grapes and quite spicy. 80% whole clusters but removing with centre of the stems – ‘they are thicker’ – with the scissors.
Gorgeous in the mouth – texturally, and how it envelops the palate. So much depth and complexity of middle and finishing flavour. Always very perfumed…
From Baudes Bas and Hautes in the south side of the Clos – the other side of the wall is the last part of Echézeaux. Two vine ages 44 (60%) and 92 – the younger destemmed, the older not.
More airy but at the same time more direct. Direct, muscular, intense – a suggestion, only, of austerity – certainly in the finish where it’s so intense. A nose short of a great wine today but with super potential !!
Biggest parcel of the domaine – more than 2ha on clay soil with lots of small limestone.
Inky deep – squid ink for ink aficionados! Also some violet flower notes. Mouth-filling and vibrant. Inky depth to this flavour too. Such breadth of flavour – great wine but for keeping. I’d consider 10 years to be a starting point.
One of 10 owners. The oldest vines of the domaine. In part, 1931 and 1934, bordering Romanée-Conti’s vines to the south of the appellation.
A nose with a subtle start, the impression of silk and beautifully perfumed – very discreet. Such a beautiful texture – a different world – breadth, following the yellow-brick road of this finish, continuing and continuing.
And for the road:
2017 Richebourg
Wow, such an extra density of aroma and depth to that aroma – here with just a hint of development. Vibrant, more structure is visible here today than the 22 and I prefer the finish of the 22 today too. This has a more visible structure but what fabulous aromas !!