2007 Vosne-Romanée Village

"Another winegrower's vintage," said Louis-Michel Liger-Belair of the growing season of 2007. He harvested during the first four days of September and quantities were down 30% from usual, with grape sugars healthy but slightly lower than those of the previous year. "Ultimately we had good maturity and good acidity," Liger-Belair told me. The grapes were smaller than usual but the skins were not thick, and the fermentations were a bit warmer and shorter than normal. The wines were untastable during the first month but the malos were over by Christmas, he went on, adding that he kept the wines on their lees to nourish them. All of the village wines and a few of the premier crus had been racked ten days prior to my visit, and the samples I tasted of these cuvees had been taken from barrel before the racking. This estate's wines are nearly always sexy in barrel, as Liger-Belair does not use sulfur during the elevage, and volatile acidity levels are typically between 0.6 and 0.7, which is high enough to project their aromas. (A Becky Wasserman selection; importers include Wines Unlimited, New Orleans, LA and Vinalia Imports, Camarillo, CA)