Terroir Insight: Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair Les Petits Monts

Louis-Michel Liger-Belair is in my view producing one of the very best wines from the somewhat overlooked Vosne-Romanee Les Petits Monts.

First vintage was 2006 starting out at a fine level with quality improving year after year arriving at a truly delightful level from 2010 and onwards.

A very sexy and delicate wine … worth exploring. … so lets take a closer look at the terroir.

The vineyard – location of the plot

The Vosne-Romanee Les Petits Monts from Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair is produced from a rather small plot located in the middle part of the quite large Petits Monts vineyard – see map below.

Taking a closer look at the plot we see that the 0.1297 ha plot is just on the border to Aux Reignots, located at the same altitude as the top of Liger-Belairs holdings in Aux Reignots.

History of the plots

Louis-Michel Liger-Belair does not own the plot on Les Petits Monts, it’s are leased from the Lamadon family in Vosne-Romanee.

Until 2006 the Lamandon family produced wines themselves from these plots, and the family has, apparently, a history as sharecroppers for the Liger-Belair family.

When the two brothers Francois and Pierre Lamadon retired Louis-Michel Liger-Belair had the opportunity to enlarge the vineyard portfolio with plots in Nuits-Saint-Georges Lavieres, Nuits-Saint-Georges Aux Cras, Vosne-Romanee Aux Brulee, Vosne-Romanee Les Petits Monts, Vosne Les Suchots and last but not least Echezeaux. In total 5.5 ha new vineyards rented from Lamandon ^{1 + 2}.

The earlier history of the plots are relatively unknown, but Lamadon is related to the Sirugue and via that to the Jayer family – on the Jean-François Jayers side of the family⁴. Sirugue and Gerbet (also related to Sirugue) own a large share of the upper plots of Les Petits Monts.

The wine

The Liger-Belair Les Petits Monts is in my view one of the very best from the appellation. I have tasted all vintages from the start in 2006 – and the wine has gradually improved – and especially the wines from 2010 and onwards are truly delightful.

Les Petits Monts from Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair is a gorgeously delicate and sexy wine … expressive and very complex with a lovely perfumed Vosne spicyness.

Despite the plots location just on the border to Reignots it’s very different from the Aux Reignots – it’s more lightfooted, delicate and perfumed … but is on the other hand lacking some of the power and weight found in the Aux Reignots from Liger-Belair.

It’s perhaps not quite matching the Aux Reignots … but my goodness it’s a sexy wine.

References & Sources:

1. Jasper Morris – Inside Burgundy – Cote de Nuits (2010)
2. Clive Coates – about Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair
3. Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair website
4. Jayer family tree – by Kenneth McNamara

Special thanks to Louis-Michel Liger-Belair from Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair for the helpful informations.

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