Richebourg Grand cru
2019
Thibault Liger-Belair comes from a great winemaking family that has deep roots in Burgundy: he is a direct descendant of the Napoleonic General Louis Liger-Belair, who acquired the Chateau de Vosne in 1815 when he married Ludovie Marey, whose family had been Burgundy negociants since 1720. Youthful, passionate and always full of ideas, Thibault trained as an oenologist, but had his start in the wine industry as a wine buyer. He is also a former rugby player with a genuine 'down to earth'...
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Liger-Belair owns 0.5ha, planted in 1936 just above DRC in the lower part of Les Richebourg. Initially somewhat reserved, this wine opened in the glass to reveal lush, plummy fruit and a savoury, smoky element and mineral notes. It is only with time that one realises the depth and strength of the tannins, so richly are they enrobed. An immense finish lingers long after you have finished. Superb.
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The 2016 Richebourg Grand Cru has a bouquet that rivets you, or your senses, to the spot, delivering a payload of intense blueberry, raspberry and wild strawberry fruit that is bewilderingly gorgeous. Upon further investigation there are traces of orange pith and even a hint of lavender. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent tannins, perfectly pitched acidity, beguiling harmony and an effortless nature that is a wonder to behold. Like drinking a luxurious penthouse apartment overlooking an azure sea. Tasted blind at the 2016 Burgfest tasting.
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Showing the adaptability of his winemaking, Thibault Liger-Belair used no whole bunches on his Richebourg in 2014, judging that the allowing fruit didn’t need it. The result is superb: deftly oaked, opulent and dense with layer upon layer of flavour and age worthy tannins.
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(from a .55 ha parcel). Relatively discreet oak spice sits atop a ripe, pretty and relatively airy nose that is composed of essence of red currant and a broad array of Vosne style spice elements that include exotic tea and sandalwood. There is excellent volume and richness to the full-bodied and distinctly serious mineral-driven flavors that possess very good mid-palate concentration on the powerful, well-detailed and gorgeously lingering if quite youthfully austere finish. This is a big wine in the context of the vintage and built to reward longer-term cellaring.
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Bright, dark red. Delicate, nuanced aromas of wild blueberry, macerated red fruits, crushed rock and exotic flowers. Wonderfully smooth and sweet yet still tight in the mouth, conveying an urgent character to its vibrant crushed raspberry and mineral flavors. Boasts amazing retention of primary berry fruit, but today this wine is even more spectacular on the nose and on the terrific gripping finish, where the noble tannins are thoroughly coated. Offers outstanding subtle length and lift.
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Featuring the highest ever percentage of whole bunches (40%), this entirely new oak aged red is quite closed at the moment, with lots of smoky, toasty flavours. There’s plenty of spice and fruit weight too, but the overall wine needs time to come together in bottle. Based on previous vintages, it will.
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The domaine’s vines are located in the oldest part of the Grand Cru and run to 1 hecatre. No whole bunches are used here, because the “complicated” terroir doesn’t suit it. A little closed at present, this wine is comparatively backward and tight, but there’s no denying that what lies beneath is very fine, concentrated and nuanced with a hint of Richebourg wildness.
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(bottled in late August): Bright, dark red. Delicate, nuanced aromas of wild blueberry, macerated red fruits, crushed rock and exotic flowers. Wonderfully smooth and sweet yet still tight in the mouth, conveying an urgent character to its vibrant crushed raspberry and mineral flavors. Boasts amazing retention of primary berry fruit, but today this wine is even more spectacular on the nose and on the terrific gripping finish, where the noble tannins are thoroughly coated. Offers outstanding subtle length and lift.
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The 2018 Richebourg Grand Cru has a very intense bouquet, a mélange of red and black fruit, crushed rose petals, baking powder and black truffle aromas; this is very complex. The palate is fresh on the entry with crisp acidity, the 40% whole cluster lending tension and pepperiness, and grippy on the broody, slightly austere finish. This will need several years in bottle. Maybe a bit saturnine at the moment, but it will find more luminosity with bottle age.
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The 2017 Richebourg Grand Cru has a deep, broody nose of dark berry fruit, crushed stone, espresso and touches of allspice. Aeration really benefits these aromatics and allows them to open and gain more red fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with a lactic note on the entry, and quite oaky, though it is simpatico with the concentrated fruit. Displaying great depth and backbone, this is a powerful and aristocratic Grand Cru...
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(from a .55 ha parcel). There is just enough post-bottling reduction to mask the detail of the aromas though this is clearly ripe. There is excellent detail to the big-bodied, powerful, precise and highly vibrant medium-bodied plus flavors that culminate in a distinctly firm and again almost painfully intense, mineral-inflected and hugely long finish that is on the refined side for a young Richebourg. This is also very serious with moderate backend austerity where the supporting structure is without question sufficiently prominent to confirm that this will need all of 15 years to reveal its full potential.
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The 2015 Richebourg Grand Cru has a deep color and a slightly forced nose that is perhaps accentuated by its juxtaposition against Etienne Grivot's Richebourg. Flavors of dark berry fruit, brown spices and a touch of soy are a little smudged, and the oak is not quite singing from the same hymn sheet at the moment. The palate is medium-bodied with grippy tannin, offering assertive structure and impressive weight and concentration - almost Bordeaux-like toward the finish. This definitely needs a lot of time in the cellar. Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting.
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(from a .55 ha parcel). This too is just wonderfully complex with broad-ranging spice and floral nuances that combine with cool and reserved aromas of red currant, cassis, Asian-style tea and kirsch. The equally cool, restrained and exquisitely energetic big-bodied flavors possess an abundance of palate coating dry extract that buffers perfectly the firm tannins on the balanced, forcefully persistent and moderately austere finish that is also notably linear at present. Once again I repeat that like the Clos de Vougeot and the LSG, it is pointless to buy this Rip Van Winkle-like effort without the explicit intention of allowing it to benefit from a long snooze in a cool cellar.
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(from a .55 ha parcel). Yet again reduction hides everything but the floral influence. By contrast there is stunningly good power and intensity to the very, make that very, very backward broad-shouldered flavors that brim with both buckets of dry extract and an almost pungent minerality on the precise, dusty and massively long finish. I appreciate that I sometimes probably sound like a broken record with my “absolutely must have patience” comments but this is a wine that would be largely pointless to buy without the express intention of cellaring it for at least 12 to 15 years and it should richly
reward 20 to 25. In a word, impressive.
(from a .55 ha parcel; 35% whole clusters). Here too the nose is overtly floral in character though relative to the Les St. Georges the dark berry fruit aromas are much more exotic and spicier. The sleekly muscular, intense and broadshouldered flavors possess outstanding mid-palate density and power before culminating in a robust, firmly structured and wonderfully complex finale where the only reproach is a touch of warmth. This is a rich and classically styled Richebourg that is very definitely built-to-age as it should be.
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(from a .55 ha parcel; 30% whole cluster). A strikingly floral-suffused nose offers up a mix of violet,lavender and rose petal that adds elegance to the panoply of spicy dark fruit aromas. There is an almost painful intensity to the beautifully well-detailed big-bodied and superbly mineral-driven flavors that possess a gorgeous mouthfeel, indeed the mid-palate is almost lacy, that gives way to a wall of tannin on the serious, powerful and breathtakingly long finish. This stunner of a Richebourg is also going to require extended keeping as it’s very, very tightly wound today
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