Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair
2013Vosne-Romanée “Les Petits Monts” ♥1er Cru Red barrel
Score: 91-93
Tasted: Jan 15, 2015
Drink: 2025+
Issue: 57
Outstanding
Note: from a .12 ha parcel
Producer note: Louis-Michel Liger-Belair told me that 2013 was, in the same fashion as 2012, marked by a “terrible flowering that cost us yet again dearly with respect to yields as they were off around 40%. In a sense though the small crop saved the vintage because with all of the rain and the lack of sunshine we never would have obtained a decent level of phenolic maturity. Even so this is the first time that I have ever seen tiny green berries at harvest time. We picked from the 5th to the 9th of October and brought in generally clean fruit though there was some sorting required for a bit of everything, which is to say for under ripe as well as rot-tinged berries. Sugars were perfectly good at between 12 and 12.5% potential alcohols and I used around 15% whole clusters for some wines. The malos were very slow as the harvest was late and even though winter was not really all that cold, it was long. As to the wines I honestly never expected to have such a high quality level. The wines were really masked by the malos as they simply weren’t very interesting during it and then, as if by magic, as soon as they were finished the wines blossomed. Moreover they have improved month by month to the point where I quite like them. They’re balanced, refreshing, vibrant and best of all, they are super transparent.” I noted this last year, but it doesn’t hurt to remind fans of the domaine that there is a new wine in the form of the 2.21 ha Nuits 1er monopole of La Grande Vigne (it’s actually in Prémeaux). There is also a white made from this vineyard as a .32 ha portion of La Grande Vigne is planted to chardonnay; a review for both the 2012 and 2013 will be in Issue 59. Note that the ’12s were revisited below and were bottled between January and April, 2014. (Becky Wasserman & Co., www.leserbet.com, Beaune, France; additional distributors include Veritas Imports, www.veritaswine.com, CA/NV/AZ/NM, Grand Cru Selections, LLC, nedbenedict@gmail.com, NY/NJ, Wines Unlimited, www.winesunlimited.com, New Orleans, LA, Classified Wine & Spirits, LLC, www.classifiedwine.net, Austin, TX, C’est Vin, LLC, 703/243-3559, Arlington, VA, and USA Wine Imports, www.usawineimports.com, NY, NY for “Selection Pas Mal”, New York, NY; Justerini & Brooks, www.justerinis.com, UK and Richards Walford & Co., Ltd., www.r-w.co.uk, UK).
Tasting note: This is also mildly reduced yet it seems pretty clear that all this needs is a good aeration as I don’t sense that the reduction is serious. I love the underlying tension present on the notably more mineral-driven and focused middle weight flavors where the intensity really builds from the mid-palate onto the wonderfully long and explosive finish. This is good stuff though unlike the Chaumes and Suchots this will require at least 6 to 8 years of bottle age before it will be sufficiently civilized to warrant opening a bottle.
Domaine du Comte Liger Belair, Vosne-Romanee Premier Cru, Les Suchots
US$5,800 / 每箱價格
Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair
2013Vosne-Romanée “Les Petits Monts” ♥1er Cru Red barrel
Score: 91-93
Tasted: Jan 15, 2015
Drink: 2025+
Issue: 57
Outstanding
Note: from a .12 ha parcel
Producer note: Louis-Michel Liger-Belair told me that 2013 was, in the same fashion as 2012, marked by a “terrible flowering that cost us yet again dearly with respect to yields as they were off around 40%. In a sense though the small crop saved the vintage because with all of the rain and the lack of sunshine we never would have obtained a decent level of phenolic maturity. Even so this is the first time that I have ever seen tiny green berries at harvest time. We picked from the 5th to the 9th of October and brought in generally clean fruit though there was some sorting required for a bit of everything, which is to say for under ripe as well as rot-tinged berries. Sugars were perfectly good at between 12 and 12.5% potential alcohols and I used around 15% whole clusters for some wines. The malos were very slow as the harvest was late and even though winter was not really all that cold, it was long. As to the wines I honestly never expected to have such a high quality level. The wines were really masked by the malos as they simply weren’t very interesting during it and then, as if by magic, as soon as they were finished the wines blossomed. Moreover they have improved month by month to the point where I quite like them. They’re balanced, refreshing, vibrant and best of all, they are super transparent.” I noted this last year, but it doesn’t hurt to remind fans of the domaine that there is a new wine in the form of the 2.21 ha Nuits 1er monopole of La Grande Vigne (it’s actually in Prémeaux). There is also a white made from this vineyard as a .32 ha portion of La Grande Vigne is planted to chardonnay; a review for both the 2012 and 2013 will be in Issue 59. Note that the ’12s were revisited below and were bottled between January and April, 2014. (Becky Wasserman & Co., www.leserbet.com, Beaune, France; additional distributors include Veritas Imports, www.veritaswine.com, CA/NV/AZ/NM, Grand Cru Selections, LLC, nedbenedict@gmail.com, NY/NJ, Wines Unlimited, www.winesunlimited.com, New Orleans, LA, Classified Wine & Spirits, LLC, www.classifiedwine.net, Austin, TX, C’est Vin, LLC, 703/243-3559, Arlington, VA, and USA Wine Imports, www.usawineimports.com, NY, NY for “Selection Pas Mal”, New York, NY; Justerini & Brooks, www.justerinis.com, UK and Richards Walford & Co., Ltd., www.r-w.co.uk, UK).
Tasting note: This is also mildly reduced yet it seems pretty clear that all this needs is a good aeration as I don’t sense that the reduction is serious. I love the underlying tension present on the notably more mineral-driven and focused middle weight flavors where the intensity really builds from the mid-palate onto the wonderfully long and explosive finish. This is good stuff though unlike the Chaumes and Suchots this will require at least 6 to 8 years of bottle age before it will be sufficiently civilized to warrant opening a bottle.
