2006 Vosne Romanee Les Petits Monts

A new Liger-Belair acquisition that – like their Chaumes – their 2006 Vosne Romanee Les Petits Monts accounts for a mere 50 cases, and, incredibly, was blended with Les Brulees and sold merely as "Vosne" by its former caretaker. Distilled and dried red fruits, along with pungent spiciness – the latter accentuated by notes of oak – are the themes here as in so many other wines of this collection. There is an almost horseradish-like nip on the palate here, which – in alliance with brash distilled fruit brightness, tartness of fruit skin, and ginger spice – leaves the tongue sizzling and aquiver. A distinctly saline savor adds further, mouth-watering appeal in a penetrating finish. This very treble wine should be fascinating to follow for at least the next 6-8 years. Louis-Michel Liger-Belair reported higher potential alcohol levels this year than in 2005, but also maintains that the nature of the ambient yeasts in 2006 accounted for a thankfully inefficient conversion, so that finished alcohols were not noticeably higher. Triage in his cellars, he maintains, was and will in future vintages remain "two to three percent," thanks to restriction of yields and meticulous vine management. Liger-Belair remains a proponent of gentle extraction but high levels of new wood. What I misleadingly announced in issue 170 as "a new negociant side of the business" is in fact an arrangement whereby Liger-Belair himself farms around 15 acres that had previously been tended by a grower who once enjoyed a share-cropping arrangement with Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair (during the long period when their wines were pledged to Bouchard). Half of the acreage in question yields Bourgogne and is genuinely sold as a negociant project, but the rest will be treated to the domaine's vine-papering, biodynamic regimen, including the horse plowing of whose revival they were among the earliest and most conspicuous proponents. Liger-Belair reminds me, however, that it will take time for the effect of this attention to be felt. Beginning with this vintage also, all of the Liger-Belair monopole La Romanee and all of their Vosne Reignots are estate-bottled, none being sold any longer to Bouchard. A Becky Wasserman Selection (various importers), Le Serbet; fax 011-333-80-24-29-70