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ProducerDomaine du Comte Liger-Belair
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Vintage2011
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Grape VarietyPinot Noir
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RegionBurgundy
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Sub RegionFlagey-Echezeaux
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Importer LabelAustralia – Negociants Australia
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SizeBottle
Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair may be seen as a recent domaine as it was established only in the year 2000 by Louis-Michel Liger-Belair. However, in reality, Louis-Michel is just renewing two hundred years of family tradition dedicated to the vines and wines of Burgundy.
The Liger Belair family has a glorious history combining the church, the army and the wine trade. The first General Liger-Belair acquired the Chateau de Vosne-Romanée in 1815, as well as various vineyards, and when his nephew and adopted heir married a Marey heiress, the empire grew rapidly: at one point the Liger-Belairs owned La Tâche, La Romanée, La Grande Rue and significant holdings of Clos de Vougeot and Chambertin, along with an array of Vosne-Romanée premiers crus including vines in Malconsorts, Chaumes, Reignots, Suchots and Brûlées.
Unfortunately, complicated succession issues meant that the whole domaine was sold at auction in August 1933. Canon Just Liger-Belair and Comte Michel Liger-Belair between them managed to save La Romanée and small holdings of Aux Reignots and Les Chaumes. Comte Michel’s son Comte Henri devoted his career to the army, reaching the rank of general like his forebear, so the vines were looked after by sharecroppers and the wines sold through négociants.
Vicomte Louis-Michel Liger-Belair decided to recreate the family wine domaine in 2000, beginning with two plots of Vosne-Romanée and premier cru Les Chaumes. Two years later he took back control of Aux Reignots and La Romanée, although a commercial contract with Bouchard Père & Fils to distribute a proportion of the latter continued until 2006. In that year also a further 5.5 hectares of vineyards, on a farming contract from the Lamadon family, brought the domaine up to its present size.
96 Points John Gilman
The 2011 Echézeaux from Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair is another superb example of the vintage. The glorious bouquet offers up a blend of red and black raspberries, a touch of blood orange, duck, great minerality, woodsmoke, Vosne spice and cedary wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and utterly seamless, with a rock solid core of fruit, exceptional focus and balance, ripe tannins and a long, pure and youthful finish of magical promise. A great bottle of Echézeaux in the making.
95+ Points Vinous
Liger-Belair’s 2011 Echezeaux is breathtaking. Red and black stone fruits are intermingled with spice, new leather and violets in a striking, totally seamless wine endowed with tons of nuance. Vibrant and delineated to the core, the Echezeaux is simply magnificent.