The 2016 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru comes 70% from the older vines planted in the 1940s and includes 40% whole cluster. It has a touch of reduction on the nose, but the palate is well structured, strict and linear, fresh in the mouth, although I would be seeking for more weight and fruité toward the finish. Let’s see...

The 2015 Clos Vougeot includes 40% whole bunch (the highest percentage thus far) and a little less pigeage according to Thibault Liger-Belair. There was a touch of reduction here, something that Thibault said he wants to keep in the wine. Underneath there is certainly commendable vigor with traces of orange peel and even tangerine. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp tannin, a keen line of acidity, candied orange peel intermingling with strawberry and raspberry fruit, nicely poised and energetic all the way through to the focused finish. This is a very fine and lively Clos Vougeot.

The 2013 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru is fully destemmed and has a perfumed and quite floral nose, the additional pigeage extracting more ripe strawberry and kirsch scents. The palate is medium-bodied with well-judged acidity and it just eases off toward the finish that is elegant, but I feel needs to develop a little more weight.

The 2012 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru comes from the south part of the vineyard, 0.48 hectares of vine planted in 1947 located in the corner towards Echezeaux on limestone, clay (red and black) and silt soils. It has a very expressive bouquet with vibrant, intense, earthy red berry fruit that demonstrate energy and hubris. The palate is very well-balanced with superb focus. The acidity it well-judged, although it is just missing a little substance towards the finish, like a child losing concentration. Hopefully that will develop by the time this is bottled, because otherwise this is a very fine Clos Vougeot. Though I have met Thibault Liger-Belair several times in the melee of the London Burgundy tastings, this was actually the first time that I had visited his cellars, stationed on the busy RN74 artery as it swerves through the village of Nuits-Saint-Georges. He actually started on the communication side of the wine business, before relocating from Paris and establishing the domaine in 2001. In case you were wondering (as I was) he is distantly related to Louis-Michel Liger-Belair in Vosne: their great-grandfathers were brothers. The barrel cellars lie below the grand maison that on first appearances is spacious for a Burgundy domaine. That might be because of the depletion of yields in recent vintages, Thibault’s 2012 averaging only 16 hectoliters per hectare on average. Still, this is a vigneron that has expanded his holdings in recent years, most recently into Moulin-a-Vent in Beaujolais, whose notes I have included here for no lesser reason than they are too bloody good to just sit on. Thibault told me that he stumbled across a Beaujolais grower who was blissfully unaware of the currency of old vine material. “I was shocked when I asked him how old the vines were,” he recalled with glee. “He did not know their age exactly. But he was 80 years old, and he said that when he was a boy, they were referred to as ‘vieilles vignes’!” I have always found Thibault an easygoing person, candid with his views, one of the most garrulous winemakers in the region. Gregory Gouges forewarned that if I videoed Thibault, I would be unable to make him stop talking, which my interviewee admitted was true before commencing his oration. But that is no bad thing when you are a young, ambitious winemaker galvanized by what you are doing and the tenets you bring to your wines that are invariably top drawer. Burgundy and Nuits-Saint-Georges in particular, need people like Thibault. Overall, these were astutely crafted wines that expressed their terroir with panache. Sure, there is a couple that seemed a little “iffy”, for example the “crazy” Charmes-Chambertin, but otherwise the passion that Thibault shows as a winemaker is translated into the passion shown by his wines. N.B. Subscribers can watch a video I took of Thibault discussing the vintage, filmed in his cellars in Nuits-Saint-Georges. I begin with Thibault’s quartet of impressive Beaujolais wines. Having experienced a 1934 Fleurie, he is convinced that there is immense untapped potential in this region (to which I agree.) Moving to the Cote d’Or, Thibault showed me through his barrel samples from the negoce side of the business (labelled “Thibault Liger-Belair Successeurs”) and from his own vineyards (labelled “Domaine Thibault Liger-Belair”.) Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802 and through Berry Brothers & Rudd in UK.

Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2011 horizontal tasting in Beaune. Thibault’s Clos Vougeot 2011 displays quite conspicuous herbaceous qualities on the nose, although there is decent fruit there to back up that leaner style of wine. The palate is medium-bodied with light tannins and pleasant red fruit infused with sous-bois notes, although the austere finish is not one you will remember. It does gain a modicum of weight in the glass, but not enough to have you rushing to your local merchant.