Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair
2015Vosne-Romanée ♥Villages Red barrel
Score: 89-91
Tasted: Jan 15, 2017
Drink: 2021+
Issue: 65
Outstanding
Note: from 11 different parcels
Producer note: Louis-Michel Liger-Belair told me that 2015 had a “pretty much perfect growing season except for a bit of oidium pressure that caused us some grief. Otherwise the conditions were clement, very hot and very dry though I stress that it was nothing like we experienced in 2003. Interestingly, the flowering was very fast, which normally is extremely positive yet we had some shatter anyway. Why that was I simply don’t know. However I do know that it was enough to cost us on the order of 25% of the potential yield. We picked from the 5th to the 11th of September and the harvest proceeded quickly as the fruit was so clean that there really wasn’t much sorting required. The vinifications were easy and I chaptalized nothing. They did unfold slowly and most cuvées needed around 25 days of total cuvaison to finish. I used a bit of whole cluster for a few wines, which is to say around 15% or so. I like the style and quality of the 2015s a lot as they have everything one looks for as they’re quite fresh, concentrated and powerful yet elegant, notably ripe yet express their terroirs well and should drink well both early on and with age. In fact, there’s not really anything to dislike other than perhaps it would have been nice to produce a bit more quantity but we can’t really complain.” I have to agree with Liger-Belair’s description of his 2015s and when taken as a range, I found them to out-perform the general quality of the vintage. I was also very impressed with the now in-bottle 2014s, revisited below, and this is true up and down the appellation hierarchy; he noted that the wines were bottled in stages which is to say December, 2015 and February and April 2016. Fans of the domaine are not seeing things as there is a new grand cru in the range. Liger-Belair explained that he signed a fruit purchase contract for a .40 ha parcel of Clos de Vougeot that at one time belonged to the négociant arm of the firm C. Marey et Comte Liger-Belair; a review for the 2015 version is below. (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).
Tasting note: There is enough reduction present to push the underlying fruit to the background today. Otherwise there is both good freshness and a lovely inner mouth perfume to the firm and punchy medium weight flavors that possess excellent depth and persistence. This should be a very good Vosne villages.
Domaine du Comte Liger Belair, Vosne-Romanee
US$9,500 / 每箱價格
Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair
2015Vosne-Romanée ♥Villages Red barrel
Score: 89-91
Tasted: Jan 15, 2017
Drink: 2021+
Issue: 65
Outstanding
Note: from 11 different parcels
Producer note: Louis-Michel Liger-Belair told me that 2015 had a “pretty much perfect growing season except for a bit of oidium pressure that caused us some grief. Otherwise the conditions were clement, very hot and very dry though I stress that it was nothing like we experienced in 2003. Interestingly, the flowering was very fast, which normally is extremely positive yet we had some shatter anyway. Why that was I simply don’t know. However I do know that it was enough to cost us on the order of 25% of the potential yield. We picked from the 5th to the 11th of September and the harvest proceeded quickly as the fruit was so clean that there really wasn’t much sorting required. The vinifications were easy and I chaptalized nothing. They did unfold slowly and most cuvées needed around 25 days of total cuvaison to finish. I used a bit of whole cluster for a few wines, which is to say around 15% or so. I like the style and quality of the 2015s a lot as they have everything one looks for as they’re quite fresh, concentrated and powerful yet elegant, notably ripe yet express their terroirs well and should drink well both early on and with age. In fact, there’s not really anything to dislike other than perhaps it would have been nice to produce a bit more quantity but we can’t really complain.” I have to agree with Liger-Belair’s description of his 2015s and when taken as a range, I found them to out-perform the general quality of the vintage. I was also very impressed with the now in-bottle 2014s, revisited below, and this is true up and down the appellation hierarchy; he noted that the wines were bottled in stages which is to say December, 2015 and February and April 2016. Fans of the domaine are not seeing things as there is a new grand cru in the range. Liger-Belair explained that he signed a fruit purchase contract for a .40 ha parcel of Clos de Vougeot that at one time belonged to the négociant arm of the firm C. Marey et Comte Liger-Belair; a review for the 2015 version is below. (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).
Tasting note: There is enough reduction present to push the underlying fruit to the background today. Otherwise there is both good freshness and a lovely inner mouth perfume to the firm and punchy medium weight flavors that possess excellent depth and persistence. This should be a very good Vosne villages.
