Domaine Hubert Lignier Gevrey-Chambertin ‘La Justice’ 2018

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Vines planted in 1987 on an area of 25 ares
Purchase of grapes from this vineyard, planted over a gravel pit with good draining soil, since 2009. When the summer is hot and dry, the vine suffers from lack of water supply. The wines are characterized by their elegance, delicacy and the softness of their tannins.

Appelation : Gevrey-Chambertin
Climat : La Justice
Variety : Pinot Noir

About Domaine Hubert Lignier

When you’re looking at wines from the great producers, like Hubert Lignier, they optimise every year. With 2015 having already proven itself to be one of the greats, 2016 has been an excellent follow-up. Lignier’s wines will be divine!

Their wines are fresh, fine and elegant Burgundies thanks to the very little intervention in the cellar.

The fun bit, is, the personality-filled wine, layered, complex, harmonious, simply put, begging you to drink it!

In the Vineyard

Father and son Hubert and Laurent Lignier manage this 9 hectares estate in Morey-Saint-Denis. They practice organic viticulture in order to create a perfect balance for the vine’s growth but have no intention of seeking certification.

The Domaine Hubert Lignier has long had a reputation for its fine wines known for their concentration, depth and structure. From ‘humble’ beginnings bottling small amounts of two different cuvées of Morey St. Denis (the village bottling and the 1er Cru “Vieilles Vignes”) as well as the fabled Clos de la Roche, Lignier now bottle an impressive range. All of the Domaine’s holdings are now bottled under their own label. Hubert’s son, Laurent, is the next generation of this proud estate and is following his father’s traditional practices to ensure the treasures coming from the family’s impressive vineyard holdings continue to exhibit the best of their respective appellations. The Domaine owns 8.30 hectares principally in the villages of Morey Saint Denis (where their home and the cellars are located), Gevrey Chambertin and Chambolle Musigny. Recently, the Ligniers have expanded their holdings to include parcels in the appellations of Nuits Saint Georges and Pommard. The Ligniers follow the principles of “lutte raisonnée” (sensible combat) in their viticulture: for example, only organic compost is used when necessary and the vineyard is tilled so that no herbicides are used. Yields vary from 20 to 55 hectoliters per hectare depending on the conditions of the growing season and the appellation. The thin, clay and limestone soil on the slopes is not conducive to vigorous growth and limits the crop naturally. A “green harvest” is used when necessary to further manage production to ensure perfect maturity. Young vines are trained using the Cordon de Royat (spur training) system, which helps control the vigor and yields as well. Of critical importance, the “sélection massale” system (i.e. replacing missing vines with cuttings from the same vineyard) is the only method used to propagate vines, a tradition that gives an extra touch of complexity and character to the resulting wines.

In the Winery

At harvest time, the pickers remove any unhealthy clusters in the field, to avoid contamination of the healthy grapes in the baskets, a practice that is supplemented with a “table de trie” at the cuverie.

Traditional vinification practices are the core of their work: grapes are destemmed and fermentation takes place in open-top cement tanks that allow manual pigéage. Only natural yeasts are used. Laurent uses an extended cold soak maceration period prior to fermentation to allow greater extraction (contrary to his father who believes that the best extraction takes place during the alcoholic fermentation). Fermentation is rather long and generally lasts 15 to 20 days following the cold soak of 5 days. The use of new oak for the élevage is carefully restrained; the norm being approximately 20% to ­ 30% on the village wines and up to 50% for the Premier and Grand Crus. The wines of the village appellations usually spend 18 months in barrel while the Premier and Grand Crus remain in cask for 20 to 24 months before being bottled, all without fining or filtration. All work in the cellar that requires movement of the wine is done by gravity; the wines are never pumped.

Hubert Lignier’s 2018 Vintage

With respect to the 2018 growing season Laurent Lignier commented that the 2018 “had its ups and downs as a very wet spring saw a severe attack of mildew followed by a very hot and dry summer that was largely uneventful save for a couple of July hailstorms that cost us some yield in Nuits. We picked from the 4th to the 12th of September and the fruit, outside of the hailed on vines, required almost no sorting. Potential alcohols were in the 13 to 14% range though I did have one wine that hit 14.7%. I used between 20 and 30% whole clusters while doing a very soft vinification as the skins were thick so it would have been very easy to create extremely tannic and tough wines so I took the approach that less was more as it were. I think that was a good decision because even with the soft vinification one thing the wines don’t lack is firm tannins. The 2018s are ripe but it’s remarkable how fresh they are plus the terroirs are more evident than one might think given the elevated warmth of the growing season.”

William Kelley

Laurent Lignier 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. Lignier began picking on September 4 and finished eight days later, reporting finished alcohols which, with only a couple of exceptions, are below 14%. The two pieces of news are the Lignier is now certified organic since May 2019, and that he is producing a new cuvée of Clos de la Roche, the story of which is told in the accompanying tasting notes.

Where in the World is Domaine Hubert Lignier?

Domaine Hubert Lignier is based in the Côtes-de-Nuits north of Beaune in the village of Morey-Saint-Denis with wines made from Gevrey-Chambertin and Chambolle-Musigny. In addition, they source fruit from Fixin, a small parcel in Nuits-Saint-Georges and Saint Romain. Recently the Domaine has commenced sourcing fruit from Pommard to the South in the Côtes-du-Beaune. Their prize holdings are of the Grand Cru’s Clos de la Roche, Griotte-Chambertin and Charmes-Chambertin alongside a suite of excellent well positioned Premier Cru’s.

Click on any of the maps below to enlarge.

Morey-Saint-Denis

Gevrey-Chambertin

Chambolle-Musigny