Thibault Liger-Belair is cousin to Vicomte Liger Belair of Vosne Romanée. In 2001 he took over an old family property in Nuits St Georges, taking back the vines which had been contracted out to various share croppers, and leased a cuverie just down the road. The family jewels (his branch) consist of Richebourg, Clos de Vougeot and Nuits St Georges Les St Georges, to which he has added further vineyards and a few additional cuvées made from purchased grapes.
The vines are now certified organic and farmed biodynamically, with horses used to plough the vineyards where possible. The grapes are rigorously sorted on a table de tri, then destalked and fermented without much punching down or pumping over. They will be racked once during the elevage, but Thibault is not afraid of reductive flavours at this stage which, he feels, adds to the eventual substance and complexity of the wine. The oak regime is not to exceed 50% new barrels but also not to use any barrels more than three years old. The natural style of Thibault’s wines is plump and full-bodied, though the benefits of his farming methods seem to be bringing a more mineral aspect to the fruit as well.
95 Points Allen Meadows
A strikingly floral-suffused and perfumed nose offers up a mix of violet, lavender and rose petal that adds elegance to the panoply of spicy dark fruit aromas. There is an almost painful intensity to the beautifully well-detailed big-bodied and superbly mineral-driven flavors that possess a gorgeous mouthfeel, indeed the mid-palate is almost lacy, that gives way to a wall of tannin on the serious, powerful and breathtakingly long finish. This stunner of a Richebourg is also going to require extended keeping as it’s very, very tightly wound today.
94-96 Points Neal Martin
The 2016 Richebourg Grand Cru includes 30% whole cluster fruit, the highest at the domaine ever, which Thibaut said combined all the elements of the vineyard together. There was just a slight reduction on the nose, though underneath lies intense blackberry and raspberry fruit, hints of truffle and cedar and then later subtle white flower scents. This seems to gather momentum in the glass, and it fans out beautifully on the regal finish. It will clearly require some time in bottle, so find a berth for this in your cellar and then forget about it. Not forever. Just say 8 to 10 years for it to show its pedigree.