2018 Lignier-Michelot Nuits Saint Georges Aux Murgers 1er Cru, Burgundy

Just 3 barrels produced yielding one of the most perfumed and seductive Burgundies imaginable with super-fine tannins in 2018 showing impressive old vines depth and intensity. (released under the Maison Virgile Lignier label; 50% whole cluster). A riper nose of baked plum, black raspberry and earth gives way to delicious and caressing medium weight flavors that display notable warmth on the robust and bold finale. Like the Cuvée Jules, this isn’t particularly energetic though it’s by no means flat or heavy.

89-92 points Burghound.com January 2020

The 2018 Nuits Saint-Georges Aux Murgey 1er Cru comes across as quite reduced on the nose, not quite as well defined as some of Virgile Lignier’s Morey Premier Crus. The palate is sweet and candied on the entry, offering bright red cherries laced with blood orange and flecks of dark chocolate. Grippy toward the finish, with a saline aftertaste. It just needs some bottle age to let it coalesce.

91-93 points Vinous Media, Neal Martin January 2020

The Lignier family have deep roots in the village of Morey Saint Denis and own 10.5 hectares of some of the very best vineyard sites in this village, and also in the 2 neighbouring villages Chambolle Musigny and Gevrey Chambertin. Virgile’s father and grand-father had always produced wine and sold it to negotiants until Virgile started working with his father in the early 1990’s and he decided to sell the wines himself. Now with almost 20 vintages of experience Virgile has moved the domaine to fully organic viticulture and is producing what many believe to be the best wines of this prestigious village.

In the last 10 years Virgile has modified his wine-making using whole-bunch vinification ranging from 30-100% depending on the vintage and the vineyard and he has also reduced the percentage of new oak (mostly Seguin-Moreau and Francois freres) for maturation with most wines seeing around 30% making its effect seamless in the final wines. He also completed a new winery in time for the 2013 vintage that now enables him to work with temperature control and to gain a very gentle extraction of tannins for all his wines. This results in wines showing great precision and energy with remarkable perfume and also beautiful fine tannins and very silky structure. They are wines which are often very seductive at a young age which also clearly have the potential for ageing superbly. This very young domaine is now regarded among the very best in the Cotes de Nuits.