"Clos de la Roche" MCMLV Grand Cru AOC 2023

A Grand Cru of cool clarity: dense without being heavy, with fine-grained tannin and a structure built for length. The old vines are prone to millerandage, yielding tiny, often seedless berries of extraordinary concentration.

The parcel lies within the Monts Luisants climat, at the upper edge of the Grand Cru Clos de la Roche in Morey-Saint-Denis. There, in 1955, Henri Lignier planted twenty-seven rows of vines, whose wood he used in the 1960s to propagate the estate's other parcels, vine by vine. These rows are thus the genetic origin of the entire domaine.

Pure Pinot Noir, dry, 13.5% vol. Synthetic treatments disappeared from the vineyards starting in 2007, and the estate has held organic certification since 2019. The cellar in Morey, acquired in 2008, relies solely on gravity, from must to bottling, without a single pump. Long, cool macerations precede fermentation; the proportion of whole clusters has grown over the years, while new oak is deliberately kept low and spread across four coopers, so that no single barrel leaves its mark on the wine.

Dark cherry, blackberry and blackcurrant, followed by violet, forest floor and clove. The acidity provides definition, the tannin remains fine-grained, and the finish is long with a mineral imprint.

Partridge with truffle jus, duck breast with red berries or young lamb with rosemary. It also holds its own against Époisses and Comté.

Since 2017, Laurent Lignier, the family's fifth generation, has bottled the harvest from these rows separately: the cuvée MCMLV, Roman numerals for 1955, a tribute to his grandfather. Barely two barrels emerge each vintage; this bottle ranks among the most sought-after Pinot Noirs of the entire Côte de Nuits.