2018 Domaine Hubert Lignier Clos de la Roche Grand Cru, Burgundy

The 2018 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru comprises one-third whole bunch and 30% new oak. The nose is uncharacteristically backward, though with coaxing it offers enticing dark cherries, blackberry, sous-bois and pine aromas that gain intensity with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red berry fruit and a fine bead of acidity. Taut and linear, leading to a very precise, persistent finish that is a pure joy. Divine.

94-96 points Neal Martin vinous.com

Revisited in bottle, Lignier's 2018 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru lives up to its fine performance in barrel, wafting from the glass with aromas of dark berries, cherries and orange rind mingled with truffle, espresso roast, loamy soil and dark chocolate. Full-bodied, concentrated and seamless, it's layered and vibrant, with a deep core of pure fruit that largely conceals impressive reserves of fine, powdery tannins. Concluding with a long and saline finish, it will merit and reward at least a dozen years' patience, likely hitting its stride around age 20.

95+ points William Kelley robrtparker.com

The 2019s, according to Laurent Lignier, possess "all the characteristics of great Pinot Noir," and that's an analysis with which I would concur. He has once again produced a fine vintage for both his domaine holdings and négociant sources—the latter, amounting to some 3.5 hectares of vines, now clearly distinguished in our reviews. As readers will know, winemaking is pretty classical at this address, with a short cold maceration, two to three weeks' maceration with one pigéage and one rémontage per day and maturation in barrels, some third of which are new—if possible, without racking—for fully 22 months in the domaine's cold cellars. Lignier began picking on September 16, and alcohol levels range between 13.5% and 14.7%, the latter extreme representing the exception rather than the rule. Tasting through the wines, the vast majority of which were in barrel and had not been racked, the most obvious analogy was with the domaine's 2015s at the same stage—but I look forward to revisiting them from bottle to confirm that impression.

The Ligniers own just under a hectare in this hallowed grand cru, split among two plots: 0.62 hectares in the climat of Monts Luisants, and 0.28 hectares in Les Fremières. Laurent’s grandfather Henri planted the first vines here in 1955 and propagated the remainder of the holdings via selection massale between 1960 and 1966. One of the most iconic wines in our portfolio, Lignier’s Clos de la Roche is also one of the greatest wines in Burgundy, vintage after vintage. The site’s particular terroir—a few inches of pebble-strewn topsoil above solid limestone rock—yields a wine of unfathomable mineral intensity, with rugged spices and a profound sense of earth framing its flinty, smoke-tinged core. It is a site that always asserts itself with force, showing its pedigree even among such lofty company as can be found in the Lignier cellar.