Burgundy Wines

wines

A discreet but not invisible dollop of wood is present on the airy aromas of both red and dark currant along with suggestions of earth and underbrush. The sleek, delicious and attractively vibrant medium weight flavors possess a lovely mouthfeel while displaying good balance on the persistent finale. This is a quality Gevrey villages and worth considering.Burghound | 89-91 BH

Opens with just a bit of reduction, but this will disappear at bottling. The aromas are compellingly attractive, with ripe blackberry and blueberry fruit and a slightly floral edge. The texture has density, grip and a marvellously lingering finish. The grapes are from a half-hectare on a gentle slope exposed to the south. This should mature fairly quickly but is also suited to mid-term ageing.Decanter Magazine | 94 DECThe 2023 Monthélie Sous la Velle 1er Cru comes from a 0.35-hectare parcel. It has an airy bouquet with dark berry fruit mixed with mandarin and light sous-bois scents. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins and much more structure than the Village Cru, with a bright and sorbet-fresh finish. This is recommended.Vinous Media | 89-91 VM

Premier cru La Riotte has delivered a wine with ripe, lush aromas of sweet mulberry fruit aromas with a hint of earth and spice. The texture is rich yet still structured, and the density pull the wine through to a pleasantly lingering finish. Laurent explains that the parcel is just below the Clos Saint-Denis, in the stony, sandy soils of the dejection cone from the combe, which helps the grapes ripen well but does not bring a lot of limestone.Decanter Magazine | 94 DECThe 2023 Morey-Saint-Denis La Riotte 1er Cru has a clean, precise bouquet with perfumed redcurrant and raspberry fruit tones. As usual, it’s one of the most open aromatics from Lignier, brimming with joie-de-vivre. This is more floral compared to the Les Chaffots. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins, pleasant salinity and what you might call a transparent finish that lingers in the mouth.Vinous Media | 91-93 VMThe elegant, airy and very pretty nose features the softly spicy and earthy essence of red pinot fruit. The refined and vibrant flavors are not particularly dense but they are lilting and seductive while displaying a subtle bead of minerality on the lightly austere, balanced and firm finale. Lovely and understated in style.Burghound | 91-93 BHMid crimson with some crushed strawberry on the nose. Some crunchiness at the back, this is agreeable but less energetic than some, not quite kicking on. Drink from 2030-2035. Tasted Dec 2024.Jasper Morris | 91-93 JM

Lignier’s premier cru Chaffots was a spectacular success in 2023, with bright forward pomegranate and wild strawberry fruit and hints of violets, liquorice, and flinty minerals. The texture is lively and fresh, with plenty of tannin but no lack of depth. The 0.45 hectares of vines were planted in 1968 in the thin soils above grand cru Clos Saint-Denis, with a prominent influence from the cool winds of the combe.Decanter Magazine | 94 DECBright purple. The nose is subtle and supple, with less immediate sweet fruit than Sorbè, a little more depth than Riotte. The class of the wine shows in the fruit on the palate, a darker red berry, with a seamless long finish, covering the tannins. Precision. Drink from 2032-2038. Tasted Dec 2024.Jasper Morris | 93-95 JMThe 2023 Morey-Saint-Denis Les Chaffots 1er Cru comes from limestone soils, which translate onto the nose. It’s quite strict and linear, with touches of black cherry and sea spray scents. The palate is medium-bodied, with a pastille-like purity on the entry. It is very supple in the mouth, but it just needs a little more grip on the finish. Otherwise, this is a refined Morey-Saint-Denis from one of its best Premier Crus.Vinous Media | 92-94 VMA more reserved and more deeply pitched nose is comprised more from the darker side of the fruit spectrum with more floral and earth nuances as well. Once again there is only average density to the fresh, punchy and solidly powerful flavors that are at once succulent yet with a youthfully austere finish that exhibits outstanding length. Like the Baudes, this virtually always ages well and it is one to look for.Burghound | 91-94 BH

This delicious wine is perennially among the most concentrated and nuanced in Lignier’s cellar—just don’t refer to it as ‘the blended premier cru’. He is at pains to point out that the rows start out in Faconnières and end up in Cheneverey, but that it is one single parcel. The wine boasts aromas of ripe plums with notes of violets, pepper, and a hint of dark chocolate. The texture is dense and rich but without any heaviness. The grapes are from 0.66 hectares of vines. The oldest were planted in 1936, and the youngest in 1962.Decanter Magazine | 95 DECThe 2023 Morey-Saint-Denis Vieilles Vignes 1er Cru comes from the usual three lieux-dits. It has an intense bouquet with cool but focused blackberry, briar and light flinty scents. The palate is medium-bodied and very well balanced, with finely sculpted tannins and seductive creaminess to the texture in the finish. Frequently one of Laurent Lignier’s finest cuvées, this is just wonderful.Vinous Media | 93-95 VMMostly Faconnières. Rich dark crimson with the most fruit to date, fully ripe. The palate offers a balanced headiness, with a fruit dark enough to include some plums. This is the more hedonistic of the two but I think my preference comes down narrowly on the more cerebral Chaffots. Drink from 2032-2038. Tasted Dec 2024.Jasper Morris | 92-95 JMA restrained but beautifully layered nose grudgingly offers up its aromas of black cherry, crushed anise and newly turned earth. There is slightly better density to the overtly powerful and more obviously mineral-driven medium-bodied flavors that culminate in a firm, serious and compact finale. This too virtually always ages well and the 2023 version should be no exception.Burghound | 91-94 BH

The Très Girard is spot-on typical Morey, with a bit more tannin and grip and less sweet fruit than some of the other offerings in the cellar. Since he doesn’t have a lot of village-level vines, he has purchased fruit from this site in the heavier soils at the base of the slope for many years. One-third of the grapes are fermented as whole clusters, and the wine is ageing in cask (20% new). This should open in three to five years and drink well for 10 years or more afterwards.Decanter Magazine | 93 DECPurchased in grapes since 2009. A full ruby crimson. Rich bright fruit on the nose, a wealth of dark cherry and raspberry on the palate, even if a little bit firm in tannins at the finish. They will settle down. Drink from 2029-2034. Tasted Dec 2024.Jasper Morris | 90-92 JMThe 2023 Morey-Saint-Denis Très Girard is blended with 30% whole cluster. It offers dark berry fruit mixed with brown spices and nicely integrated 50% new oak. The palate is fresh and very harmonious on the entry with finely chiseled tannins and a tensile, precise finish. Very fine.Vinous Media | 89-91 VM

I think of Lignier’s ‘Trilogie’ as a village++. The grape blend is nearly two-thirds from the village-level part of Chenevery, planted in the 1960s, withi a bit of fruit from old cordon-trained vines in the clay-rich soils of Clos Solon, and a bit more of Les Porroux (30%), the total amounts to a hectare of old vines, low-yielding due to age, even in 2023. The ripe plum and currant fruit aromas are accented by hints of smoke and spice and a suggestion of black tea. The texture has lovely depth and richness, and should drink well for 20 years at least.Decanter Magazine | 94 DECA blend of Chenevery, Clos Solon and Les Porroux. Mid ruby in colour. The fruit is sufficiently ripe to cover the structure without turning into lush dark fruit., More of a sweet red cherry. Excellent intensity, this is a cut above Très Girard both in class and intensity. Tannins are present, but subdued beneath the fruit. Drink from 2030-2036. Tasted Dec 2024.Jasper Morris | 91-93 JMThe 2023 Morey-Saint-Denis Trilogie comes from three parcels (as you would expect). This has a perfumed, floral bouquet with touches of peony infusing the dark berry fruit and hints of bay leaf coming through with time. The palate is very well balanced with a sorbet-fresh entry and lively blood orange infusing the dark cherry and cassis fruit on the crunchy finish. This is what you might describe as a "solid" Morey-Saint-Denis without the flair or chutzpah of the Vieilles Vignes.Vinous Media | 90-92 VM

The Pommard En Brescu from Domaine Hubert Lignier is high-toned with red berry-fruit aromas and a floral edge. It’s light bodied with fresh acidity and firm tannins. The grapes are from 0.40ha that Lignier purchased in 2014, planted on terraces high on the slope overlooking the Clos des Mouches. The grapes are partially destemmed and fermented with native yeasts before ageing in cask (20% new).Decanter Magazine | 93 DECVines in terraces, planted 1997, vines purchased 2014. A lighter crimson ruby colour. Some firm red berry fruit on the nose. Plenty of energy on the palate, actually fills the mouth despite this being a cool, hillside site. A fine long dark red fruit finish, covering the tannins. Drink from 2030-2035. Tasted Dec 2024.Jasper Morris | 89-92 JMDeep ruby color. A distinctly earthy yet cool and airy nose of both red and dark currant introduces caressing, delicious and seductively textured medium weight flavors that also conclude in a dusty, youthfully austere and firm but not grippy finish.Burghound | 87-90 BH

The 2023 Volnay Village comes from two lieux-dits. It has a lively, punchy bouquet with blackcurrant and raspberry scents and great vigor. The palate is smooth and sensual, with touches of dark chocolate and pain d’épices infusing the red berry fruit with a caressing and quite persistent finish. This is very fine.Vinous Media | 89-91 VM

Lignier’s new cuvée in Morey is the premier cru Les Sorbès. The wine boasts a ripe blackberry fruit with an almost gamey savoury note and hints of mineral and spice. Although the flavour is substantial, the texture is pleasantly ethereal, almost like a wine from Chambolle. This is the first vintage of this wine; Lignier sourced enough fruit for four barrels from the site located down the slope below the Clos de Tart and the village.Decanter Magazine | 94 DECSlightly fuller crimson colour with a floral nose, a touch of peony. All destemmed as it is the first year of this contract. More sweet cherry fruity intensity on the palate, a little gentian at the finish, an interesting, complex wine. The fruit has more sucrosity than some. Drink from 2030-2037. Tasted Dec 2024.Jasper Morris | 91-94 JMHere too there is a hint of herbal tea on the softly wooded nose of earthy red currant aromas. The seductive, round and utterly delicious middle weight flavors are shaped by relatively fine-grained tannins on the youthfully austere and lingering finale where the only reproach is a touch of warmth. This is a wine of finesse but with sufficient stuffing to repay up to a decade of aging.Burghound | 90-93 BHThe 2023 Morey-Saint-Denis Les Sorbés comes from a purchase of fruit that represents four barrels this year. This has a vibrant floral bouquet with lovely delineation and lift, as rose petal and bergamot infuse the raspberry fruit. The palate is well balanced with supple tannins and a caressing finish, a little fleshy and perhaps Chambolle-like. This will drink well in its youth.Vinous Media | 89-91 VM

Patrick Piuze’s 2023 Chablis Terroir de Chablis, informed by two north-facing parcels near Montmains, is bright and floral, offering notes of lemon zest, white flowers and green apple. Tensile and precise, concluding with a long, mineral finish, it’s one of the domaine’s calling cards.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 91 RPThe 2023 Terroir de Chablis is another vine villages bottling in the making. The wine’s bouquet is bright and complex, wafting from the glass in a mix of grapefruit, pear, orange peel, a fine foundation of chalky soil tones, a touch of straw and a lovely topnote of beeswax. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, complex and well balanced, with a good core of fruit, fine framing acids, lovely focus and a long, poised and bouncy finish. Good juice. (Drink between 2025-2045)John Gilman | 91 JG

Patrick Piuze’s 2024 Butteaux is a bit more structured and reserved out of the blocks than the lovely Montmains and will demand a couple years more in the cellar before it blossoms, but it may well be every bit as fine as the Montmains once it is ready to drink. The wine’s aromatic constellation is composed of scents of tart orange, lemon, apple, a fine base of limestone soil, paraffin, citrus blossoms and a deft touch of oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and youthful, with a fine core of pure fruit, excellent mineral drive and grip, lovely acids and a long, well balanced and very promising finish. 2032-2065.John Gilman | 93+ JG

The 2024 Chablis “les Séchets” from Patrick Piuze is also an outstanding wine in the making. The bouquet is very expressive already and is flat out stunning, soaring from the glass in a mix of lemon, pear, beeswax, a complex foundation of chalky minerality, white lilies, apple blossoms, citrus peel and just a whisper of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full, pure and succulent at the core, with fine soil signature, a lovely spine of acidity, great focus and grip and a long, complex and beautifully balanced finish. Fine, fine juice. 2030-2065.John Gilman | 93+ JG

Opening in the glass with aromas of spring flowers, Granny Smith apple, lemon oil and nashi pear, the 2024 Chablis 1er Cru Montmains is medium-bodied and taut, bright and chalky, with mouthwatering acidity and a long, precise finish.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 91 RP

The 2024 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru has a delectable nose not dissimilar to the Criots this year, beautifully defined with hints of oyster shell surfacing with time, quite Zen-like but paradoxically conveying real presence. The palate is very well balanced with wonderful poise. Impressive depth and concentration considering the growing season with a sprightly finish that fans out in a cool, calm and collected fashion. This is an excellent Bâtard-Montrachet that has its nose in front of the Criots.Vinous Media | 95-97 VM

The 2024 Chassagne-Montrachet Maltroye 1er Cru has a clean, fresh bouquet with simmering mineralité that comes through with time, a little Puligny-like in style. The palate is well balanced, the one-third new oak neatly integrated, not a powerful Chassagne but there is a sense of nervosité that runs through this wine that I appreciate.Vinous Media | 92 VM

The 2024 Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru has a delightful bouquet with crushed stone infusing the bright citrus fruit, tightly coiled but opening with time in the glass. The palate is well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, quite saline in the mouth with oyster shell on the weighty finish. There is real weight and presence here. No wonder it has the highest sugar level among all the Domaine’s cuvées - the power is palpable in this Criots.Vinous Media | 94-96 VM