"Clos de la Roche" Grand Cru AOC 2022 3000ml Doppel-Magnum

Cool clarity is the signature of Domaine Hubert Lignier, and the Clos de la Roche Grand Cru is its centrepiece: cool fruit, fine-grained tannin, a long and clear finish. This Pinot Noir is built for length and definition, not for sheer weight. In the double magnum of 3000 ml it matures more slowly and stays fresh for longer.

Clos de la Roche lies in Morey-Saint-Denis in the Côte de Nuits. The Lignier family has farmed Pinot Noir there since the 1880s; in 1959 Hubert Lignier took over the estate, and from 1973 began bottling the wine himself rather than selling it in bulk to merchants. Today Laurent Lignier runs the estate in the fifth generation. At the upper edge of the vineyard, in the climat of Monts Luisants, stand twenty-seven rows of vines planted in 1955, whose harvest has gone separately into the MCMLV cuvée since 2017.

Pinot Noir. Synthetic treatments disappeared from the vineyards from 2007 onwards. The cellar, acquired in 2008, works by gravity alone, from the crush right through to bottling, without a pump. Long, cool maceration periods precede fermentation; the proportion of whole clusters has grown over the years, and new oak is deliberately kept low and spread across four coopers so that no single barrel leaves its mark on the wine.

Black cherry, wild raspberry and violet, with undergrowth and black tea beneath. Dense, with silky, fine-grained tannin and a long, clear finish. 13.5% vol., dry.

Saddle of venison with juniper jus and porcini mushrooms, pink-roasted duck breast with cherry jus, guinea fowl with truffle or chicken stew with mushrooms and bacon. For a vegetarian option, Jerusalem artichoke with hazelnuts and sage works well, and for cheese, an aged Époisses de Bourgogne.

The rows of vines planted in 1955 by Henri Lignier are the genetic origin of the estate: in the 1960s he propagated the other parcels vine by vine from their wood. Bottling takes place in Morey-Saint-Denis.