Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair | Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru "Clos des Grandes Vignes" (Monopole) 2022 750ml

Louis-Michel Liger-Belair bought this 2.2-hectare Prémeaux monopole in 2012, and in the 2022 range Michael Schuster found it "the first with a noticeable sense of structure".

The domaine's climat page records the walled vineyard at 2 hectares 19 ares 53 centiares, 1.8753 hectares of it Pinot Noir and 0.32 hectare Chardonnay for a separate white. Owners are traced back to 1855 and the Viénot family, whose Charles Viénot built the name in the 1930s; the clos passed to the Thomas family of Moillard in 1982, to Domaine du Château de Puligny-Montrachet in 2006 and to Liger-Belair in 2012. Near Corvées Pagets, it is the only Premier Cru east of the appellation, on 40 to 60 centimetres of brown clay-loam over ochre oolitic Jurassic limestone. In 2017 seventy per cent of the vines were 62 years old; Winehog reports the young vines now go into the village wine. The average crop is 15 barrels, about 4,500 bottles.

On the season, Schuster in The World of Fine Wine quotes the grower: a mild early spring with little frost, a very hot, dry summer, rain at the end of June and in late August, and a harvest from August 30 with eighty pickers. After the frost-emptied vats of 2021 the cellar was full, and Winehog notes this cuvée is "back to more normal yields", the extra volume giving "a more relaxed wine". The published cellar routine applies: 14-kilo crates, eight sorters, full or partial destemming, a week below 15°C before fermentation starts without added yeast, a small vertical press, ten days of settling, then new oak with no racking or sulphur until bottling; Schuster gives 100 per cent new wood for 11 to 18 months.

The domaine has been certified biodynamic by Ecocert under Biodyvin since 2012; Enoteca, the Japanese importer, lists this 2022 as biodynamic with seventeen bottles allocated to Japan.

In the glass

Tasting the bottled wine for The World of Fine Wine (September 2024), Schuster found "an immediately impressive, rich, sweet, fruit-packed, imposingly glass-charging nose, with a light mineral/clay suggestion", then "a finely firm, supporting tannin, a fresh, defining acidity", the wine "combining Nuits-St-Georges substance and premier cru finesse"; he scored it 93. Winehog, from barrel in November 2023, called it "quite spicy and intense" yet "not really a powerhouse", 92 to 93 points. Enoteca describes dense fruit aromas in a long-ageing style and quotes Vinous at 92 to 94 (as quoted by Enoteca).

When to open

Schuster writes that it "will benefit from a bit of time. A decade minimum", window 2032 to 2047 and beyond; Winehog says drink from 2034. Our suggestion: decant an hour, serve at 16°C.

At the table

Our suggestion: roast guinea fowl, beef cheek braised in red wine, or lamb shoulder with thyme.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from the Japanese importer.

Sources: Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair; Enoteca (Japanese importer); The World of Fine Wine (M. Schuster); Winehog; Vinous