Grand Cru Wine Merchants

I last tasted Thibault Liger-Belair's 2006 Clos Vougeot assembled from tank on the eve of its bottling. (He keeps his barrels of grand cru in the coldest part of a notoriously chilly cellar, so as to prolong elevage and guard freshness.) Like his Les St.-Georges of this vintage it is palate-staining and loaded with tart black fruits (cassis, blackberry), raw meatiness, smoky black tea, and mineral matter. On the one hand there is a sense of darkness to the profundity of flavors here and the black fruit intensity, but on the other hand there is brightness thanks to invigorating, tart freshness, with neither excess fat nor any superficial sense of sweetness in evidence. This formidable – if for now not loveable – Clos Vougeot has the energy to and mass to burn, and I can imagine it needed 2-3 years in bottle to shed its severity, and lasting a decade or more. -92-93pts WA (DS)