95-97 Point Wines

wines

This blended premier cru has always been the chouchou (special favourite) of Laurent Lignier. It is two-thirds of a hectare, blended from Faconnières and Les Cheneverey. The vines were planted beginning in 1936, the youngest—in 1962. It usually gives a wine that is a model of elegance and finesse, and 2022 is no exception, with pronounced aromas of mulberry and cassis touched with violets, liquorice, and cedar. The texture is ethereal and perfumed, yet the finish is astonishingly long. This wine should be accessible relatively early and should drink for 20 years at least.Decanter Magazine | 96 DECClear bright and lively ruby purple. Super perfume, this has an innate class over and above even the Chaffots, with a lovely tensile strength. More red fruit than black, perfectly poised, with a long stylish finish. All in finesse! Tasted Nov 2023.Jasper Morris | 94-96 JMThe 2022 Morey-Saint-Denis Vieilles Vignes 1er Cru comes 60% from Les Faconnières and the rest from Chenevery. The very complex bouquet has a mixture of red and black fruit, detailed with crushed rock and graphite. The medium-bodied palate has fine-grain tannins with that graphite element hovering in the background. It is very detailed and precise toward the finish. This is one of Lignier’s finest cuvées, and the 2022 is no different. Superb.Vinous Media | 93-95 VMThe 2022 Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru Vieilles Vignes unwinds in the glass with aromas of rich, smoky berry fruit mingled with notes of rose petals, spices and grilled squab. Medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with a fleshy core of fruit framed by sweet, powdery tannins, it concludes with a perfumed finish. As usual, it’s one of the high points of the range.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 92-94 RPThis is also firmly reduced. By contrast, there is a lovely sense of freshness and verve suffusing the exceptionally rich and highly seductive medium-bodied flavors that brim with old vine sappy dry extract while exhibiting evident minerality on the superbly long, balanced and powerful finish. This is excellent and, along with the Combottes, almost always the domaine’s best 1er.Burghound | 91-94 BH

This wine is the star of the Lignier cellar and among the best in Morey, with its currant and mulberry fruit and hints of savoury, gamey depth. The wine is more muscular, structured, and dense than the ’classic’ Clos de la Roche, yet there is enough elegance to ensure that this wine is in a class of its own. The grapes come from 27 ares planted in Monts Luisants by Lignier’s grandparents in 1955. One-third of the grapes were gently fermented as whole clusters over 18 days, and the wine is ageing now in a cask (one-third new).Decanter Magazine | 98 DECThe 2022 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru unwinds in the glass with aromas of smoky plums and berries mingled with notions of cinnamon, raw cocoa, game bird and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, rich and layered, with supple, powdery tannins cloaked by a sweet core of fruit, it concludes with a broad but saline finish.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 93-95 RPHere too the nose is sufficiently reduced as to mask the fruit. On the palate though there is both good verve and freshness to the highly seductive and rich larger-scaled flavors that brim with sappy dry extract and evident minerality on the balanced, firm and lingering finale that exhibits focused power. This is really quite impressive and a wine that should amply repay extended keeping.Burghound | 92-95 BH