Chambolle-Musigny "Les Bussières" AOC 2022

A village wine from Chambolle-Musigny, dry, built slender at 13.0% vol. The frame is narrow, the definition precise: red cherry and raspberry over dry, fine-grained tannin. Laurent Lignier, who runs the domaine in its fifth generation, aims here for length and freshness rather than volume.

Chambolle-Musigny is one of the communes in the Côte de Nuits where the Lignier family owns vines. Their historic home is in Morey-Saint-Denis: there, in the 1880s, Jacques Lignier bought parcels that phylloxera had devalued, which his son Jules patiently replanted; in 1959 Hubert Lignier took over the estate's management and began bottling his wines himself from 1973. Laurent Lignier returned to Morey in 2010 and had reunited the domaine by 2013.

Pinot Noir, pure. Long, cool macerations precede fermentation; the proportion of whole clusters has grown over the years. Laurent Lignier has deliberately scaled back new oak and spread it across four coopers so that no single barrel marks the wine. The cellar, acquired in 2008, works solely by gravity, from the must to bottling, without a pump.

Pale ruby red with violet highlights. On the palate, juicy red fruit, with violet, fine spice and a touch of undergrowth. The acidity carries the wine, the tannin stays fine-grained, the finish is long and clear. Best served slightly cool.

Synthetic treatments have been absent from the vineyards since 2007, with organic certification following in 2019. The soils are ploughed, the parcels tended vine by vine.