2013 Vosne-Romanée Village

Louis-Michel Liger-Belair's 2013s are transparent, crystalline wines that express the signatures of the year to the fullest. Like all of his colleagues, Liger-Belair grappled with challenging conditions all year long. Yields are down 40%, but in the end, that was likely a saving grace, as the wines possess striking purity of fruit and lovely depth, both obtained with slightly lower levels of maturity than is the norm. The 2013s were vinified with around 15% whole clusters, mostly on sites with a prevalence of clay, which is the norm here. Production is tiny and the wines are very hard to find, but I rarely miss a chance to drink them when I can, as these are among my personal favorites in Burgundy.

Louis-Michel Liger-Belair vinified his crus in 2013 with about 15% whole clusters, noting that it's almost always the fruit from clay-based soils--as opposed to limestone--that gets this treatment, "otherwise the wines are too round and supple." Liger-Belair began harvesting on October 5, his 40th birthday, bringing in fruit with grape sugars between 12% and 12.5% and then chaptalizing by about half a degree. "Low yields were critical to having enough alcohol to buffer the wines' acidity," he said, adding that production was in the 22 hectoliters-per-hectare range. The malos were late, finishing mostly in June and July, but the Petit-Monts lingered until August. "The wines' peak of oakiness was at the end of the malos," he told me. "It's really only since September that the wines have gained in readability." Liger-Belair says the 2013s have a similar balance of alcohol and acidity to the 2011s but that the newer vintage possesses more fruit. "I'd drink the 2012s and 2013s are the same time, but for different reasons."