"Clos de la Roche" MCMLV Grand Cru AOC 2022 1500ml Magnum

A Pinot Noir of cool precision: well-defined, finely built, aimed at length and clarity. At 13.0% Vol. and vinified dry, the wine stays lean in build without losing concentration. The magnum format works in favour of long ageing.

In the Monts Luisants climat, at the upper edge of the Grand Cru Clos de la Roche in Morey-Saint-Denis, stand twenty-seven rows of vines from 1955. Henri Lignier planted them, and in the 1960s he used their wood to propagate the estate's other plots by selection, vine by vine. The family has cultivated Pinot Noir in Morey-Saint-Denis since the 1880s, now in its fifth generation under Laurent Lignier.

The old vines tend towards millerandage, bearing tiny, often seedless berries of enormous concentration. Long, cool maceration periods precede fermentation, and the proportion of whole clusters has grown over the years. New oak has been deliberately scaled back and spread across four coopers, so that no single barrel marks the wine. The cellar, acquired in 2008, works purely by gravity, with no pump touching the wine from must to bottling. Synthetic products have been absent from the vineyards since 2007.

Silky texture, concentrated cherry, blackberry and raspberry, underpinned by violet, undergrowth and clove. Fine-grained tannin, clear acidity, long and spicy finish.

Bresse pigeon with porcini, rosé-roasted saddle of venison or veal fillet, alongside aged Époisses and Comté.

Since 2017, Laurent Lignier has bottled the harvest of this plot separately, as the cuvée MCMLV, the Roman numeral for 1955 and a tribute to his grandfather. It yields barely two barrels per vintage, and the bottle ranks among the most sought-after Pinot Noirs of the entire Côte de Nuits.