Comte Liger-Belair | Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2022 750ml

Louis-Michel Liger-Belair calls 2022 "a thrilling vintage", and it is the first Clos de Vougeot he made after 0.59 hectare of former Lamarche vines joined his 0.40-hectare parcel.

The domaine's own climat page sets out the original holding: 0.40 hectare of Pinot Noir sitting mid-slope on the Vosne-Romanée side of the Clos, vines that were 52 years old in 2017, an average of six barrels or about 1,700 bottles, and a first vintage in 2015 from grapes bought under a long-term contract with a certified organic grower. The same page notes that this ground belonged to the Liger-Belair family until 1933. With the 2022 vintage the picture changed: Michael Schuster in The World of Fine Wine lists a further 0.59 hectare of Clos Vougeot among the vines taken over from Nathalie Pacareau, formerly part of Domaine Lamarche, and Winehog confirms the extra Clos Vougeot plots were folded into the existing wine. Enoteca, the Japanese importer, adds that all the new plots were switched to biodynamic farming.

Schuster quotes the grower on the season itself: "A very benign season that presented little in the way of challenge." A mild, sunny early spring brought little frost, summer was hot and dry with relief from rain in late June and late August, and picking began on August 30 with eighty people harvesting for a week. The domaine's published method then applies: 14-kilo crates, an eight-person sorting table, a week below 15°C before indigenous yeasts start a fermentation of around ten days, a small vertical press, and ageing in new barrels from three cooperages without racking or added sulphur until the bottling racking at 10 to 18 months, then bottling by gravity without fining or filtration.

Louis-Michel, an agricultural engineer and oenologist, set the domaine up in 2000 on 1.5 hectares of family vines and added La Romanée in 2002; farming is organic and biodynamic, with horses, across 14.5 hectares today.

In the glass

Tasting the 2022 from vat for The World of Fine Wine (September 2024), Schuster found it "dense, firm-fruited, persistent, finely earthy, suggestive of its clay cradle, packed but closed", a "rich, concentrated wine, vigorous in acidity, firmly tannic, a classic, muscular Clos de Vougeot constitution", and scored it 94–95. He places the 2022 reds overall as supple, medium-bodied and ripe-fruited rather than heavily tannic. Enoteca describes a juicy, full-fruited, powerful style and quotes a Vinous range of 95–97 (as quoted by Enoteca).

When to open

Schuster gives a window of 2037 to 2057 and beyond, noting the firm structure asks for a long wait. Our suggestion: if opened early, decant for an hour and serve at 16°C.

At the table

Our suggestion: roast duck, pigeon with morels, or a mature Comté.

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