Tasted in Nuits St.Georges with Thibault Liger-Belair, 05 April 2023.
Domaine Thibault Liger-Belair
32 rue Thurot
21700 Nuits St.Georges
Tel: +33 3 80 61 51 16
www.thibaultligerbelair.com
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. But parts of the cellar are now 4 barrels high… We have new tanks on the winery too, a development of the first ones bought in 2018 – round at the bottom. To have some natural movement of the wine whilst in the tanks – used in 22.”
Thibault on 2021:
“In 2021 the stems were touched a little by mildew so hardly any wines used whole clusters. All our bottling under nitrogen today, the wine displacing the N2 I think this also minimises bottle shock – it will be used first time for 21s. The 21s are having a later bottling – because there were no bottles! It’s just commencing. We lost only 30% in 2021 in Burgundy – 60% with frost and there was 25% that was lost due to mildew in Beaujolais – so a couple of the wines haven’t been made.”
The wines…
Both Thibault AND his wines were on great form this day!
2021 Moulin à Vent Vieilles Vignes
7 parcels, now all combined – so 7 hectares. 65-105-year-old vines.
Dark, fresh, pure, graphite aromas too. Beautiful attack and shape – fine architecture – vibrant at the end with small bitters. The last drops in the glass are beautifully perfumed – and what a great length of finish!
From the top of the hill, near the windmill, so no surprise there’s lots of wind. Pink sand and granite with not much more than 20cm of soil.
A silky, inky deeep, nose. Airy, open, intense – beautiful – there is energy yet lightness of touch – finesse yet the finish is grandiose!
2021 Moulin à Vent Champs de Cour
From the south side of the Moulin à Vent hill, here with a very fine granitic sand soil. ‘Like the Chambolle of Moulin à Vent’ 1.8 ha
Ultra-deep, fresh dark fruit. A hint of more richness in this width, more present ripeness of fruit – dark cherry energy – more obvious concentration. Ultra-impressive.
Now a change of register:
2021 Bourgogne Grands Chaillots
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 lighter red fruit, subtly with some oak. More width and energy – a so different – super texture – more velour – but with concentrated and mobile fruit. I would wait a while for the smoky notes to fade but that’s got a vivid finishing intensity!
2021 Côte de Nuits Villages Lurey
Vines opposite Clos de Marechale and Clos l’Arlot – planted in 1937.
Wide – more floral than smoky. Hmm – that’s luxuriously proportioned, supple, half silky, half velour. Juicy flavoured – structured but never hard.
2021 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 little more dark fruit attack – faintly floral too. In the mouth, much more floral and juicily mouthwatering. That’s a beauty!
2021 Nuits St.Georges Bellecriox
To the south, just under Pruliers. Almost 70-year-old vines. here since 2018, the only vines of the domaine touched by hail in 2021 so hardly any stems.
More depth to this nose – fine energy too. Also juicy – but deep and more supple – a more perfumed style both the nose and flavour…
2021 Gevrey-Chambertin En Creots
1.4 ha. 2nd vintage, Brochon side. No wc here – ‘the soil is not deep enough and there is enough energy already.’
Perfumed – starting tighter but opening wider in the glass. The perfume would make me think of stems – in the mouth too – that’s super wine. A decent structure – great flavour.
2021 Chambolle-Musigny Vieilles-Vignes
5 different parcels with plenty of wc. The oldest vines from the 1950s.
This nose starts round and cushioned but becomes finer and more direct with a little air – modest intensity but so attractive. In the mouth, we have direct, silky, more mineral intensity. Super wine.
Foucheres and Beau Bruns blended
Lighter colour but more intense perfume – cliché beautiful Chambolle. Hmm, depth of gorgeous texture, depth of gorgeous flavour – simply a top-class villages Chambolle – bravo!
The meeting of the two combes – Nuits and Vosne. ‘No wc in this very limestone place.’
Wonderful aromatic vibrations – a hint of salinity in this mix too. Broader, vibrant and cool-flavoured complexity. So juicy and dynamic finishing. Also a great villages.
2/3 on limestone, but above is more clay and soil, which is actually deeper and higher above. Older Oxfordian limestone here, high on the slope vs the Bajocian of the CdNuits.
Hmm – perfumed again – roses. Hmm – vibrant and juicy more direct and more definition. Hmm – great – again!
From Aux Charmes opposite the border between Latricières and Chambertin – late 40s vines with tiny grapes and quite spicy. Some wc but the inner stems cut out.
Obviously perfumed aromatics – fabulous. Open, multiple flavours washing over the palate – depth of finishing flavours too – so good – a potentially great Charmes…
2021 Clos de Vougeot
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.
Fine, narrower but finely direct aromatics. Air brings much more floral perfume. Super energy and clarity – more structure – but energy and so complex a hint saline too.
Biggest parcel of the domaine – more than 2ha on clay soil with lots of small limestone.
An airy perfume – that’s a beauty – small but perfectly formed. Structured but there’s more flesh on the bones of this structure than was obvious for the Clos de Vougeot. Supple in the middle and finishing. Top!
One of 10 owners. The oldest vines of the domaine. In part, 1931 and 1934, bordering Romanée-Conti to the south of the appellation.
Narrower but perfumed aromatics – 30% wc – more seamless entry and continuation of the wine through this, silken, concentrated but not overdone flavour – seamless is a very good word. A finish that doesn’t diminish for such a long time.