Clos-Saint-Denis Grand Cru, Domaine Georges Lignier et Fils, 2021

“The vintage of my life” is how the ever ebullient Benoit Stahly describes 2019, adding “the grapes were perfect, the balance, energy and terroir expression – perfect. Good to drink young and yet can age for decades”. All sounds rather ideal – and I’d tend to agree, these were a pretty captivating set of wines. Benoit suggested the vintage harmonises the power of 2012, 2015, and 2018 and the elegance and definition of 2014 and 2017. Lignier’s wines are amongst the most attractively priced of Cote d’Or growers, the Chambolle Musigny is the pick of the village wines in 2019, and for only a shade more I highly recommend the Morey Saint Denis 1er Cru ‘Clos des Ormes’ (watch out for Benoit’s “Hidden Gem” video…). This under the radar vineyard lies directly opposite and adjacent to two Grand Crus - Clos de la Roche and Latricieres-Chambertin and Benoit insists the latter is often no better! We had an interesting discussion about which is Morey’s top Grand Cru – given the tradition of villages to append the name of the most prestigious vineyard as a suffix (i.e. Gevrey… Chambertin, Chambolle… Musigny, Puligny and Chassagne… Montrachet etc). For Benoit, Clos Saint Denis is more representative of the elegant charms of the village than the other (generally more expensive) contender Clos de la Roche, which he believes shows more of the muscular character of neighbouring Gevrey. (See Romain Taupenot’s thoughts on ‘Mazoyeres-Saint Denis’…). In any case both the Grand Crus showed very pleasingly and distinctly – so why not get a case of each, and throw in some Bonnes Mares as well to complete the trio!