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CHARMES CHAMBERTIN

2016 Grand Cru Domaine Lignier-Michelot

EN PRIMEUR
Pinot NoirRedFrance,BurgundyCôte d'OrCôte de NuitsGevrey ChambertinGrand Cru 13%Charmes Chambertin

2016 is the last vintage for Virgile here - as the vines have been sold. Great sweet and easy attack. Lovely creamy fruit. Lots of warm strawberries, some greener raspberry leaf notes too - delicious and sexy. Great mineral undercurrent as well - a fine line just checks the fruit and focuses the whole. Impressive balance. Super drive - charming! Finish is powdery and dusty fruit and stones. L&S (Oct 2017)

* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.

(100% vendange entier; made from what Lignier describes as the last Mazoyères before the Charmes): Good medium red. Dark but vibrant scents of black cherry, violet and faded rose. Suave and fine-grained but still quite primary and brooding. Shows very good depth of flavor but limited mid-palate fleshiness and sweetness. A strong wine but a bit disassociated today, with its acidity yet to be absorbed. Finishes with very good length and a touch of sourness. Will this harmonize and fill in with time in the cellar? Drinking range: 2024 - 2034 Rating: 91 Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar (Jan 2018)

The 2016 Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru is aged in one-year-old barrels with 100% whole-cluster fruit. It has an intense bouquet with vivid black cherries, blueberry, soy and graphite (indeed, there was something almost Right Bank Bordeaux about this Burgundy!). The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, crisp and focused, not as complex as some of the best examples that I have encountered this vintage but refined and elegant on the finish, which sports a dash of white pepper. Very fine. Drinking range: 2022 - 2040 Rating: 92-94 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Dec 2017)

100%. Lifted slightly methyl, floral note. It is light and fine and delicate. A airy Charmes. There is volume and intensity, but not at all rich. Focus and tension on the finish. Very airy. this is really very good indeed. Rating: 19.75 Sarah Marsh MW, The Burgundy Briefing (Nov 2017)

A domaine of 11 hectares, 25% regionals, 50% Villages, 20% Premiers crus and 5% Grands Crus. Virgile Lignier worked at the domaine with his father Maurice from 1988, beginning to bottle some of the wine from 1992 (it had previously been sold to the négoce), taking over in 2000, which was the vintage when he first bottled all the domaine's production.

In the vineyard Virgile made significant changes, stopping the use of herbicides, and beginning to plough instead. Green harvesting to limits yields followed, along with greater attention to grape selection. The domaine works organically except in extremis.

The wines have a lovely combination of enough body and richness, combined with a lively clarity of expression. The old vines village cuvées are seriously good, and great value too. Going up the scale each site seems to speak very clearly of its source and there is a brightness and energy along with full, seamless fruit.

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Wines bought en primeur are scheduled to arrive in the UK over the course of the next eighteen months. If you do not wish to take home delivery, you may wish to consider where you would like the wines shipped on arrival in the UK. Lea & Sandeman offers duty paid and in bond storage through a dedicated storage company called Elephant Storage. For more details on the terms and fees associated with storage please go to our Storage Homepage or contact our primeurs team for more information.

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