2008 Nuits St Georges La Charmotte

Pale ruby. Pale rim. Lots of vegetal development and interest. Racy and well balanced. Quite polished. Already an attractive drink. (JR)

The Liger-Belair 2008 Nuits-St.-Georges La Charmotte – vinified with around a 20% share of whole clusters and stems – features brown-spiced cherry and rhubarb in a bright, tight, sappy and energy-charged performance. Tannins here cannot be overlooked even though they are relatively fine-grained, and it will be interesting to see how they evolve in bottle, but certainly this long-finishing Pinot will need a couple of years aging and should remain fresh for at least 6-8. Thibault Liger-Belair was bullish on his 2008s – and for good reason, pointing out that for him, the challenge of rot was significantly greater in 2007. That said, his collection from the latter vintage is impressive of its kind, too, and I concur with his assessment (a far more conservative one than I heard from many growers) that the best 2007s should be worth following for a decade, but probably not much longer. He felt confident in both 2007 and 2008 to utilize stems and whole clusters extensively in fermentation, as is his wont whenever he deems it possible. Most of the Thibault Liger-Belair 2008s had been bottled a month before I tasted them – a late start on bottling by the standards he has thus far set. Liger-Belair says he has now settled into a biodynamic regimen for all of his vineyards, after having first tried out certain methods on property he acquired in the Hautes-Cotes in 2004. He opines that among other things these methods have rendered the vine wood more supple, which permits elevating and expanding the canopy without shading the fruit or risking wind-snapped branches, and he believes this expansion was critical to the measure of ripeness he was able to achieve in the prolonged, breezy late innings of 2008. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802

(this and all but the last three wines had been racked a week before my visit) Captivating aromas of cherry, spices and crushed stone lifted by oak. Juicy, suave and intense, though tightened today by its firm oak influence. A bit disassociated at the moment. Liger-Belair purchased this vineyard near Bousselots in 2002 but he told me that only beginning in 2005 did the vines' roots begin to penetrate the calcaire layer beneath the brownish-orange clay.