The Other Lignier
Say 'Lignier' and most Burgundy drinkers think of Hubert or Georges. Virgile Lignier's family domaine is a different lineage altogether — and its Clos de la Roche 2012 opened with dried petals and a Vosne-like elegance.
Vintage 2012
5 notes
Vines from 1937
Les Suchots is the largest premier cru in Vosne-Romanée, wedged between Romanée-Saint-Vivant and Échezeaux. Nicolas Potel's domaine farms a parcel of it planted in 1937, and the 2012 — a tiny, concentrated crop — showed what very old vines do in a difficult year.
The View Is of Marcassin
A Napa Cabernet house bought forty acres on the second ridge in from the Pacific, planted nine of them to Pinot Noir, and named the place after what it looks out at. 2012 was one of the first two vintages.
Two Hundred Cases from the Côte Brune
La Landonne is a name three houses have made famous, and Delas holds one of the smallest pieces of it — a little over two hundred cases a year off iron-rich schist. Opened on an ordinary Wednesday evening at the desk.
A Chapel That Is Not a Vineyard
La Chapelle is named for a building, not a plot — a chapel Jaboulet bought in 1919, on a hill it does not own outright. The 2012 was the vintage where the house's long convalescence finally read as recovery.