Tasted in Nuits St.Georges with Thibault Liger-Belair, 06 December 2021.
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 2021:
“21 was a difficult vintage from the perspective that we seemed rarely to have enough time; we always seemed to be fighting something or being extra attentive – but it’s a vintage that’s helped us grow and understand more things – we learned never to drop our guard. we had two starts for the vines. We had more mildew in 2016 than in 2021 though we had the impression that the strength of the maladies was always stronger than was truly visible – the vines were, perhaps, a little fatigued so it was always possible for them to quickly fall under the maladies. We harvested 30-40% less in the Côte de Nuits – only in the Clos de Vougeot did we have a bit more than in 2019 – but still only half a barrel more. Moulin-à-Vent lost 50% to the frost, many cornes (the arms of the goblet-pruned vines) were dead this year from the frost but the regrowth from below was good. I’m not the biggest fan of 2018 but 2019 was, I think, exceptional. 2020 could be too but I think that 2021 will not be added to this trilogy of well-thought-of vintages. I think that it will be for drinking before all those vintages. Though I’m happy with the quality, my 11.5 ha brought very little wine – for the vintage as a whole, we lost at least 80%…”
Thibault on 2020:
“About the same volume as in 2019, plus or minus, depending on the location.”
The wines…
Great Moulin à Vent this year – all of them! The Côte d’Or selection is something to savour too – number of wines worth a special search – I might just take the Les Saint Georges!
7 parcels, now all combined – so 7 hectares. 65-105-year-old vines.
Ooh, thats a deep and vibrant nose. GreT shape, presence, mouth-watering, great bj, clarity and length.
14k vines per hectare – but for 80 years – probably to protect the grapes from the sun! Quartz and granite soil. This south of the windmill and less windy than the previous which was north of the windmill. This from barrel. 13.8° same as last .
Deeper, darker, slowly growing with florals too. A more inky depth, faintly grained, but no dryness. Inky concentration, so persistent, so rich and dense. My personal preference is the clarity and openness of the previous, today, but this is also great wine.
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 little less open to start then grows with air becoming quite floral. This is a more structural wine – almost a halfway house between the previous two wines. I like this a lot. And its great finishing, really great and complex!
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
Higher floral tones. Wider, more vibrant and insistent in the mouth, a return to the clarity of the first but with more depth and complexity, mineral finishing, extra-long again – bravo!
Now a change of register:
2020 Bourgogne Grands Chaillots
4 ha, 1 in the Hautes Côtes, 1 in Nuits, 2 in Chambolle – Thibault bought a domaine in Chambolle in 2016.
Plenty of colour. A more vertical but also floral nose – lovely. Vibrant, freshly mouth-watering. Easy finishing but thats a simply excellent Bourgogne with great aromatics.
2020 Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits Clos Prieuré
Bought in 2004 with white soil and a 40% slope. In Arcenant, 400 m altitude.
Less depth but here is more aromatic width. More direct, more silky little accent from the tannin a little wc perfume in the middle flavours too. Long, wc-inflected finishing flavours. Impressively long!
2020 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.
An, airy, silky width of aroma, quite perfumed, only accented by the wc. Very silky, direct, saline, lovely energy here – so impressive.
2020 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 2020 so hardly any stems.
Wow, really floral – that’s a beauty. Wide, slightly more cushioned texture, long, haunting, the greater of the two perhaps, but really great wine.
5 different parcels with plenty of wc. The oldest vines from the 1950s.
Beautiful, just a little more purity and class to this beautiful perfume. Great in the mouth – volume without weight, haunting, mobile, gorgeous flavour – bravo!
2020 Gevrey-Chambertin Croix des Champs
In the domaine since 2006. Bottom of Gevrey with deeper soils
A little oak spice is the first note. In the mouth more volume, lots of energy, some wc and oak spice combined – long, acid-red fruit in the finish – vibrating long.
2020 Gevrey-Chambertin En Creots
From Brochon below Evocelles, first vintage so no wc, 1.4 ha
A smaller but also rounder nose. Similar in the mouth – cool fruit, super silky texture, slowly more of velour as the tannin shows. Really lovely, probably a little extea structural sophistication.
The meeting of the two combes – Nuits and Vosne. ‘No wc in this very limestone place.’
Extra colour. A full nose, density of aroma but not dense. Wide, but then mouth-filling – really an extra density in the middle and finishing flavour – easily villages-plus!
2020 Charmes-Chambertin
From Aux Charmes opposite the border between Latricières and Chambertin – late 40s vines with tiny grapes and quite spicy stems so less wc. All new oak
A width of impressive aroma – I hardly note the 100% new oak. Wide, vibrant, beautiful texture, wide and persitent finishing – beautiful wine here…
2020 Corton-Renardes
2/3 on limestone, but above is more clay and soil, which is actually deeper higher above. Older Oxfordian limestone here, high on the slope vs the Bajocian of the CdNuits.
A mix of the vibrant and the floral. Mouth-filling, even a suggestion of fat yet it is open and showing fine clarity too. Finishing much more mineral and mouth-watering and chalky – very impressive – from this flavour I might think a terroir for white.
2020 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.
A silky weight of aroma, faintly barrel-spiced. Mouth-filling, super energy, slightly saline too, some coffee from the barrel. Really complex and with super energy, long of course, slightly textured here from the tannin but never hard.
Biggest parcel of the domaine – more than 2ha on clay soil with lots of small limestone.
Here is a nose that has a certain personality and sophistication. Open and very complex. Mouth-filling but airily complex. There’0s concentration but never overt intensity. Of course, it comes from Nuits but structurally, seemingly from an elegant quarter of Nuits. Very long, mineral and saline. Bravo!
1931-1934 vines – some of the oldest in Vosne and the oldest in Richebourg. One of 10 owners.
A very vertical nose, deep at the base very perfumed at the top. Mouth-filling, growing in intensity but with no sharp edges. There is an accent of tannin but über-fine grained. Vibrant finishing. Always a pleasure – incredible length, almost a silken length.
Les whites…
2020 Savigny-lès-Beaune Clos du Village
Vibrant ripe yellow citrus notes. Great shape, sleek, mouth-watering, again saline, growing in intensity. Super Savigny!
2020 Corton-Charlemagne
From Languettes, Thibault here since 2016
Ooh – great perfume to this nose, a slight cushion too. This has a little fat and a little oak too but it is sinuous and mobile and just incredibly attractive. Simply excellent Charlemagne.