HUBERT LIGNIER 2020 CHARMES CHAMBERTIN 1.5 LITER

JOHN GILMAN 96 POINTS – “The 2020 vintage has produced one of the finest young examples of Charmes-Chambertin that I have ever tasted chez Lignier. The stunning nose offers up scents of red and black cherries, cassis, grilled meats, a gorgeous base of soil tones, woodsmoke, dark chocolate, coffee bean and a nice touch of spicy oak from its thirty percent new casks. On the palate the wine is pure, full and sappy at the core, with great soil transparency and grip, fine-grained, buried tannins, tangy acids and laser-like focus on the long and very complex finish. This is a beautiful young wine! It will take plenty of time to fully blossom, but it will be well worth the wait. (Drink between 2040-2100).”

DECANTER 95 POINTS – “The fruit has a lovely black cherry sucrosity, with notes of rose petal and spice. The texture is silky, with lots of finesse, yet not lacking in density. Lignier remarks: ‘It’s less like the fleshy side of Gevrey and more like a Morey-St-Denis’. Lignier’s 0.10ha parcel of Charmes lies in Mazoyères, near Les Combottes, and not far from the Morey border.”

WINE ADVOCATE 93 – 95 POINTS – ” The 2020 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru has turned out especially well, wafting from the glass with aromas of peonies, sweet wild berries, orange rind, loamy soil and rose petals. Full-bodied, layered and seamless, with velvety tannins and an ample core of vibrant, perfumed fruit, it concludes with a long, seamless finish. This may well emerge as Lignier’s finest Charmes of the 2018, 2019 and 2020 trio. Laurent Lignier began his harvest on August 27, reporting below-average yields and finished alcohols between 13% and 14%. Once again, the result is a fine vintage for both his domaine holdings and négociant sources—the latter, amounting to some 3.5 hectares of vines, now clearly distinguished in our reviews. As readers will know, winemaking is pretty classical at this address, with a short cold maceration, two to three weeks’ maceration with one pigéage and one rémontage per day and maturation in barrels, some one-third of which are new—if possible, without racking—for fully 22 months in the domaine’s cold cellars. The 2020s are more primary and tightly wound than Lignier’s 2019s, but they’re similar in terms of ultimate quality and are well worth seeking out.

BURGHOUND 92 – 94 POINTS – “Discreet, even understated, aromas of exuberant and very pretty dark currant, ripe plum, spice and marked notes of herbal tea and floral wisps. There is a lovely sense of underlying tension to the borderline creamy but powerful and punchy medium weight plus flavors that are shaped by a firm but not really austere tannic spine supporting the wonderfully persistent finish. Once again, everything is in place such that this too should age gracefully.”