Hubert Lignier
Wines
Morey-Saint-Denis
Bourgogne Aligoté, “Aux Poirelots”
The Lignier family owns a 0.4-hectare parcel of Aligoté in Gevrey-Chambertin proper, planted in 1944, and this wine offers a salty, racy profile of blasted chalk and golden fruit. It is a restrained, finely wrought Aligoté that avoids some of the variety’s occasionally coarse notes in favor of a prevailing mineral character. Vinified and aged in stainless steel on its fine lees, the wine is bottled without fining or filtration just prior to the next harvest.
Saint-Romain Blanc
Hubert and Laurent began producing a Saint-Romain Blanc in 2004, the year Romain passed away, and they continue to make it in his honor today, sourcing the fruit from a 0.3-hectare parcel in the steep, southeast-facing Sous le Chateau vineyard. This site’s stony, poor-soiled terrain yields a wine of notable minerality, framed by luscious pit fruits and a tense acidity typical of the appellation. This cuvée undergoes alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in barrel (20% new), and rests on its fine lees for 15 months with minimal batonnage before bottling.
Bourgogne Rouge, “Grand Chaliot”
The Grand Chaliot vineyard is situated just south of Nuits-Saint-Georges, and the Ligniers work 1.25 hectares of 30-year-old vines there. Given its proximity to Nuits-Saint-Georges, this wine possesses a seriousness and complexity uncommon in a Bourgogne Rouge. As with the Passetoutgrain, this is raised in used barrels and bottled just prior to the following harvest.
Bourgogne Passetoutgrain, “Aux Poirelots”
Lignier’s Passetoutgrain is benchmark of its category, offering the finesse of far loftier appellations and embodying the authoritative depth of the house style in miniature form. The wine comprises 0.4 hectares worth of vines: 60% Gamay (from 1960) and 40% Pinot Noir (from 1998), planted within the confines of Morey-Saint-Denis proper in a site called Aux Poirelots. Aged entirely in used barrels, this cuvée is bottled without fining or filtration just before the next harvest.
Pommard, “En Brescul”
Although the Lignier domaine is historically associated with the Côte de Nuits, their firmly classical house style melds beautifully with the mineral rigor of Pommard. Hubert and Laurent ventured into this zone during the period of uncertainly following Romain’s death, and this “En Brescul” comes from a 0.4-hectare parcel of 20-year-old vines on which the family has a 25-year lease. Raised in 25% new wood, this amply concentrated wine displays dark red fruits around its core of stones.
Nuits-Saint-Georges, “Les Poisets”
In 2010, the Ligniers purchased a third of a hectare of old vines (circa 1947) in this vineyard that sits just below the great premier cru Les Cailles in the southern part of Nuits-Saint-Georges. This cuvée displays a firm mineral backbone typical of its village of origin, but with a very Lignier sense of drive and freshness. Laurent employs a modest 15% new wood during its 18-month élevage.
Chambolle-Musigny, “Les Bussières”
Les Bussières sits just below the premier cru Les Sentiers (and just down-slope from grand cru Bonnes-Mares), hard on the border of Morey-Saint-Denis. The Ligniers exploit just under a half-hectare of vines here—a total of four parcels, planted between 1947 and 1983—and the wine they produce from here combines a classically Chambolle elegance with a certain mineral-derived strictness, a structure deriving more from intense calcareousness than overt tannins. Laurent uses just 20% new wood during the 18-month élevage.
Gevrey-Chambertin, “Regnard”
Regnard is a south-facing site in the southern sector of Gevrey-Chambertin, and the Ligniers are in contract to access a parcel of Pinot Noir here between 40 and 70 years of age. This is a fresh, silken wine with intense minerality and marked tension—a wonderful counterpoint to the more somber “Les Seuvrées”—and its modest 20% new oak is all but invisible.
Gevrey-Chambertin, “Les Seuvrées”
Les Seuvrées sits just below the grand cru Mazoyeres-Chambertin on the slope, bordering the northern edge of Morey-Saint-Denis. The Ligniers own a hectare of very old vines here, planted between 1938 and 1966, and this cuvée displays a darker, more rugged side of the appellation, with meaty depth and intense concentration. Laurent employs approximately 20% new barrels for the élevage here.
Morey-Saint-Denis, “Très Girard”
Since 2009, the Lignier family has purchased grapes from a half-hectare parcel in this well-positioned vineyard just below premier cru Clos Sorbé on the slope in southern Morey-Saint-Denis. Its 40-year-old vines, which the Ligniers manage during the growing season and at harvest, produce a lithe, energetic wine that leans toward Chambolle-Musigny in its overall graceful character, but with a textbook Morey-Saint-Denis savory underpinning.
Morey-Saint-Denis, “Trilogie”
Lignier’s “Trilogie” is produced from small holdings of very old plantings in three different Morey-Saint-Denis lieux-dits: Chenevery, Clos Solon, and Porroux, with vines planted between 1936 and 1972. There is good intensity of structure to this wine, with a deep mineral thrust and a wild spice element, yet it preserves a sense of lift and drive. Laurent employs just 20% new oak during the wine’s 18-month élevage.
Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru, “Les Didiers, Hospices de Nuits”
The Ligniers occasionally purchase this very special cuvée that belongs to the Hospices of Nuits Saint Georges, from a 2.45-hectare premier cru monopole. From a parcel within Les Didiers that is planted to 65 year old vines, "Cuvee Fagon" is vinified at the Hospice and undergoes elevage in the Ligniers' cellar, in accordance with their style.
Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru, “Les Chabiots”
Les Chabiots is a tiny vineyard of particularly excellent positioning, situated immediately above the fabled premier cru Les Amoureuses on the slope, and just next to Le Musigny. From vines planted in 1997, Laurent and Hubert produce a Chambolle of breathtaking finesse, dazzling aromatics, and all the gorgeousness one would expect from such real estate, made even more vivid by their careful, patient élévage.
Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru, “Les Baudes”
Located at the foot of the hallowed grand cru Bonnes-Mares just south of the Morey-Saint-Denis border, “Les Baudes” is the classic Chambolle premier cru of the domaine, and the Ligniers own a scant 0.18-hectare parcel of 55-year-old Pinot Noir here. Explosive and muscular where the “Chabiots” is delicate, this bristles with energy and possesses real cling on the palate, whose resoundingly long finish promises years of positive evolution. Laurent employs around one-third new wood for this cuvée.
Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru, “Aux Combottes”
Aux Combottes is one of the more enviably situated premier crus in the Côte de Nuits, flanked on three of its four borders by grand crus, and perched just north of Clos de la Roche on the slope. The Ligniers own a 0.15-hectare sliver of vines planted in 1957, and this wine is a perennial standout in their cellar, offering power in reserve and a chiseled structure that beckons for a bit of cellaring patience.
Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru, “Les Blanchards”
Immediately next to “Clos Baulet” and “La Riotte”, this parcel of “Blanchards” is 0.30 hectares and is planted to 30 year old vines. This cuvée is more substantial than the “Clos Baulet” but is still a wine of great finesse.
Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru, “Clos Baulet”
This 1er Cru is the smallest of all the 1er Crus in Morey Saint Denis, a mere sliver of a vineyard placed between “Les Blanchards” and “Clos Sorbes”. Lignier exploits a parcel of 0.22 hectare that is still planted to relatively young vines (20 years). This cuvée is the most delicate and silky of the Lignier offerings from Morey.
Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru, “La Riotte”
Situated at the foot of grand cru Clos-Saint-Denis, La Riotte is a cru full of small stones, and it possesses a distinctively vivid, tight-grained minerality from which all other elements of the wine seem to flow. Beneath the dominating calcareous elements are gorgeous red fruits, wispy spices, and a notable floral character. Aged in one-quarter new wood for 18 months, “La Riotte” is a formidable wine that nonetheless refrains from drawing undue attention to its power.
Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru, “Les Chaffots”
The Ligniers own just under half a hectare of 50-year-old vines in this great premier cru, which sits just above Clos-Saint-Denis on the slope. This vineyard yields a wine of brooding tension, black of fruit and stern, with a rigorous acid profile and real power underpinning it. “Les Chaffots” is unfailingly a profound wine that beckons for some patience, but the purity of fruit is striking here, even in the context of such tight-grained structure.
Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru, “Vieilles Vignes”
The Ligniers’ iconic “Vieilles Vignes” encompasses tiny holdings in two different premier crus: 0.33 hectares in Les Faconnières planted between 1947 and 1960, and 0.2 hectares in Les Chenevery planted between 1936 and 1942. Both crus are situated just beneath Clos de la Roche on the slope, and the resultant wine always possesses an ineffable grand-cru “x-factor” and a striking sense of sappiness from the vines’ extreme age. Laurent employs one-third new oak for this cuvée, which spends a lengthy 21 months in barrels.
Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru
Description coming soon.
Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru
The Lignier family owns a mere tenth of a hectare in the Mazoyeres-Haut climat of this Gevrey-Chambertin grand cru. From their old vines (planted in 1948), they render a wine of immense power and concentration, yet always with a sense of underlying refinement, and a mineral core of incredible depth. The wine masks its 30% new wood well, even in its youth.
Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru
Beginning with the 2014 vintage, Hubert and Laurent have sourced grapes from a 50-year-old plot in this minuscule grand cru—producing just two barrels of wine per year. Of the three grand crus issuing forth from the Ligniers’ cellar, this is the most airy and delicate, emphasizing higher-toned spices and floral elements in its aromatics, and with a mineral-drenched, lifted palate of notable energy. It spends 18 months in wood—one new 350-liter cask and one older.
Clos de la Roche Grand Cru
The Ligniers own just under a hectare in this hallowed grand cru, split among two plots: 0.62 ha. in the climat of Monts Luisants, and 0.28 ha. in Les Fremières. Laurent’s grandfather Henri planted the first vines here in 1955 and propagated the remainder of the holdings via selection massale between 1960 and 1966. The site’s particular terroir—a few inches of pebble-strewn topsoil above solid limestone rock—yields a wine of unfathomable mineral intensity, with rugged spices and a profound sense of earth framing its flinty, smoke-tinged core. One of the most iconic wines in our portfolio, Lignier’s Clos de la Roche is also one of the greatest wines in Burgundy. Spending seven seasons in barrel (one-third new), it should be cellared with utmost patience.
Clos de la Roche Grand Cru, “MCMLV”
For the first time in 2017, Laurent Lignier produced a separate cuvée of Clos de la Roche in honor of his grandfather Henri. The Clos de la Roche “MCMLV” comes entirely from Henri’s first planting in 1955: 27 rows of Pinot Noir in the Monts Luisants climat, which he used to propagate the rest of his holdings during the 1960s. This original parcel is highly susceptible to millerandage, which results in small berries of immense concentration, and Laurent harnessed the full power and intensity of such fruit in this stupendous bottling—of which he produced a mere two barrels. A wine such as this embodies Burgundy’s most profound essence: the continuous spirit and presence of a family whose members’ very hands have worked these same vines, this same parcel, since the vines were planted. How could Henri Lignier, when he was breaking earth in 1955, have ever imagined the course his home region would take over the ensuing decades, or the global acclaim that would be heaped on his son’s and his grandsons’ wines? Yet, despite the incredible changes those ensuing 65 years have witnessed, a Lignier has steadfastly worked each vine among these 27 rows of Clos de la Roche, vintage after vintage, gradually building its reputation as one of red Burgundy’s pinnacles. “MCMLV” is not just a great wine, then; it is an emblem of all that makes Burgundy special.