Richebourg
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Domaine de la Romanee Conti (DRC),
Ready, but will improve,
Deep ruby, almost opaque. The nose is subdue at first, lightly perfumed with plummy, dusty fruit with hints only of super ripe fruit. The palate by contrast is massive, sumptuous even, with sweet, velvety fruit, a supple, rich, broad-shouldered structure and an extraordinarily powerful and sustained finish. Magnificent. From 2010.
For laying down,
The beautiful bouquet of this Richebourg Grand Cru from Thibault Liger-Belair brims with promise and on the palate there is a huge swelling of dark red fruit that is a real mouthful. It is too early to see the full detail and structure of this wine but the fruit, tannins and acidity are all in perfect harmony.
For laying down,
This is still tight at present but there is a huge explosion of fruit at the front, even though it is hidden at the back. The excellent finish shows real intensity and class.
Jasper Morris MW,Berrys' Burgundy Director
Jasper Morris MW,Berrys' Burgundy Director
- 2011 was a relatively easy year in the vineyards for Thibault, as there were no problems with health. The main decision was the date to pick (from 5th September) which he chose by leaf colour as an indication of the end of the vine cycle. He employed very gentle vinification this year to keep the fruit fresh. Thibault has been moving towards and elegant style, a little bit away from the plumpness of his early wines. He manages this through shrewd judgement on the use of stems and particular attention to the type and toasting of wood to be used. He is especially proud of his ‘tartare’ barrels with minimum toasting.
For laying down,
Glowing an alluring ruby purple colour, this Richebourg is showing very little on the nose, the fruit not yet ready to emerge from its cocoon. Although the flavours may not be fully apparent, the texture of the wine demonstrates its quality, with a coating of plush velvet covering the palate. The structural elements of acidity and tannin are present but submerged by the wealth of fruit. Two minutes after spitting an extraordinary perfume rises up. Tuck this infant away safely in the cellar for a number of years.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director
There is a marvellous sense of energy in Thibault Liger-Belair’s 2010 wines, perhaps his finest vintage to date. This is a vintage where the wines express the characters of their terroirs very well. Thibault decided on a longer than usual vinification but with very little active extraction and fewer stems than in 2009. Where Thibault purchases grapes (Aloxe-Corton, Chambolle-Musigny) his team manages the vineyard work after the initial pruning.
Domaine Jean Grivot,
For laying down,
In youth, this wine is magisterial, needing the full sweep of time to open up. Descriptions of wines at this level are elusive. This is a brooding, charismatic wine, throbbing with resonance and confidence. Drink 20282040.
Jean Grivot, whose name continues to appear on the labels, took over from his father Gaston in 1955 and handed the estate on to his son Étienne in the early 1980s. Étienne, married to Marielle Bize from Savigny, has been through a number of incarnations as winemaker here. When he took over, his father’s style was for gentle, graceful wines which perhaps were a little weak in the lesser vintages. Since then Étienne has found his own voice and made a range of increasingly fine wines. The drive to reduce yields and fine-tune his work in the vineyards and cellar since the mid-2000s continues to enhance quality. The succession to the next generation is now well underway, with Mathilde and Hubert increasingly influential, under their father’s experienced and wise guidance.
Here the decision was to wait for a bit of rain, to get the skins and berries fully ripe. The rain did the trick and the resulting wines are among the best of the Côte this year. Adjectives tumbled from Étienne during the tasting: seductive and precise, glamorous, graphite and saline, luminous and suave. We both agreed we rather liked “resonant”. Volumes are up 50 percent but Étienne warned us that the run of short vintages has depleted their reserves, and as such allocations this year will not move up in line.
Jean Grivot, whose name continues to appear on the labels, took over from his father Gaston in 1955 and handed the estate on to his son Étienne in the early 1980s. Étienne, married to Marielle Bize from Savigny, has been through a number of incarnations as winemaker here. When he took over, his father’s style was for gentle, graceful wines which perhaps were a little weak in the lesser vintages. Since then Étienne has found his own voice and made a range of increasingly fine wines. The drive to reduce yields and fine-tune his work in the vineyards and cellar since the mid-2000s continues to enhance quality. The succession to the next generation is now well underway, with Mathilde and Hubert increasingly influential, under their father’s experienced and wise guidance.
Here the decision was to wait for a bit of rain, to get the skins and berries fully ripe. The rain did the trick and the resulting wines are among the best of the Côte this year. Adjectives tumbled from Étienne during the tasting: seductive and precise, glamorous, graphite and saline, luminous and suave. We both agreed we rather liked “resonant”. Volumes are up 50 percent but Étienne warned us that the run of short vintages has depleted their reserves, and as such allocations this year will not move up in line.
Showing 1-17 out of 17 items
The vines currently average 45 years old. About a third of the holding remained in ungrafted vines until 1946, with two cuvees being produced – a regular Richebourg and a version labelled Richebourgs Vieux Cépages. When these vines were grubbed up and replanted after the Second World War, cuttings were taken from La Romanée Conti which was also being replanted.