The 2015 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Gruenchers includes 40% whole bunch fruit and will include 50% new oak (two barrels). It has an engaging bouquet, very open and inviting with lively red cherry, wild strawberry and blood orange aromas that feel precise and delineated. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannin, a crisp line of acidity, a dash of white pepper sprinkled over the finish. There is just a touch of reserve on the finish that curtails the persistence, but otherwise this is a very fine Chambolle-Musigny.

The 2014 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru les Gruenchers, which Thibault has purchased fruit from since 2005, has a slightly austere bouquet of distant wet clay scents tincturing the red berry fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin and is nicely structured with a little gaminess coming through the finish. This is a decent Gruenchers, though to be honest, it is not the best that I have tasted in this vintage.

The 2013 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru les Gruenchers is the first vintage where Thibault has used 20% whole-cluster fruit. It has a precise, again, quite mineral-driven, tensile bouquet that is very expressive. The palate has a keen thread of acidity, citric and linear, a more streamlined Chambolle, perhaps less flamboyant than a typical Gruenchers, but with killer salinity on the finish. This has great potential.

The 2012 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Gruenchers comes from out-sourced grapes although Thibault does everything in the vineyard. It has a compact bouquet that does not quite own the vivacity of the Gruenchers from other growers. The palate is medium-bodied with a latte-tinged opening. The oak is still a little conspicuous here, but it is harmonious on the finish. Fine. 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.

The 2010 Chambolle-Musigny Les Gruenchers is soft, feminine and gracious. It shows good definition in its fruit but comes across as a bit light for the year. The ethereal, fleeing finish suggests this is a wine best suited for drinking over the next handful of years. The Gruenchers is made from purchased fruit. Anticipated maturity: 2013-2020. I was deeply impressed with the wines I tasted with Thibault Liger-Belair. Thibault’s core holdings are the remaining vestiges of his family’s portion of the original Liger-Belair estate that was sold in the early 1930s. In recent years, Liger-Belair has added a few negociant wines to augment his range. Thibault Liger-Belair is the largest owner of the Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Les St. Georges and the leading proponent of the movement to have the vineyard classified as a Grand Cru. Liger-Belair’s decision to taste his Les St. Georges in between the Clos de Vougeot and Richebourg makes an eloquent case. In fact, words are pretty much superfluous at that point. I will report on Liger-Belair’s 2009s in the April issue. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802