2008 Domaine Thibault Liger-Belair Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Saint-Georges 1er Cru

Bright, dark crimson. Great freshness and vitality on the nose. Slightly stemmy? Racy and full of life. Bit chewy. Very firm backbone. Hint of chestnuts – and chestnut skins. (JR)

Liger-Belair’s 2008 Nuits-St.-Georges Les St.-Georges. – vinified one-third vendange entier; tasted from barrel; and not due to be bottled until June – is densely-concentrated and tannic, but fine-grained. Its contrast of bright blackberry and red fruit with rich, roasted but rare red meat is striking and saliva-stimulating. Tobacco, crushed stone, dark chocolate, peat, and new leather add to the complexity on display in this formidable yet vintage-typically enervating Pinot, one that should merit 15 or more years of cellaring. 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

Racy and lively and silky. But a bit chunky and solid and savoury. (JR)