Domaine Thibault Liger-Belair Bourgogne Rouge “les Grands Chaillots”

Thibault Liger-Belair became the first vigneron in nine generations of a family that once owned La Tâche Grand Cru — sold to DRC in 1929 — and was listed on the Lyon Stock Exchange as a négociant house tracing to 1720. When he founded the domaine in 2001, he chose to make wine rather than trade it, and every technical decision since has been a deliberate break from the extraction-driven Nuits-Saint-Georges archetype his ancestors profited from. Les Grands Chaillots is sourced from Côte de Nuits soils of chaille — limestone-flint mix with clay, the same geological backbone that gives the appellation its structural tension even at the regional Bourgogne level. Vineyards are plowed by horse under full biodynamic management, with grapes triple-sorted (at vine, before and after destemmer) and fermented with native yeast in open-top vessels using minimal pumpovers — infusion over extraction. Aging runs in oak barrels with village-level one-third new oak, lightly charred over 5–7 minutes, with a mandatory 3-year wood-drying period Thibault imposes to soften tannin integration; bottled unfined and unfiltered. The special feature here: a regional Bourgogne Rouge built on the same biodynamic protocols and cellar restraint as the domaine's Grand Cru parcels — no concessions for appellation level. In the warm 2020 vintage, Thibault deliberately avoided over-extraction to preserve freshness and energy, yielding a Pinot of fine promise per Winehog.