Corton Grand Cru "Les Renardes"

Thibault Liger-Belair is the first vigneron in nine generations of a family that once owned La Tâche Grand Cru — sold to DRC in 1929 — and operated exclusively as a négociant since 1720. When he founded the domaine in 2001, he inherited not a cellar but a philosophy to invent, and the Corton Grand Cru Les Renardes sits within his Aloxe-Corton holdings as his most southerly red Grand Cru statement. Les Renardes occupies the lower-mid slope of the Corton hill, where iron-rich, reddish-brown clay over fractured limestone bedrock delivers a denser, more structured expression than the paler, stonier soils of Corton-Charlemagne above — the clay fraction retaining moisture through dry years like 2021 while the limestone drives mineral tension. In the cellar, Liger-Belair applies his documented 'infusion over extraction' philosophy: hand-harvested fruit passes triple sorting before native-yeast fermentation in open-top vessels with minimal pumpovers and pigeage. Whole-cluster inclusion — calibrated per vintage — adds aromatic lift and tannic grip without sacrificing transparency. Aging runs 14–18 months in lightly charred (5–7 minute) fine-grained oak, with up to 50% new barrels selected after fermentation and dried for three years to soften tannin integration. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered. What separates this from peers is the biodynamic discipline applied to a Grand Cru climat rarely farmed with this level of precision: horse-plowed soils, sulfites sourced from a natural Polish mine. The 2021 vintage, a cool, late-ripening year across Burgundy, rewards Liger-Belair's light-touch extraction — expect taut red-fruit concentration, firm but fine-grained tannins, and a decade of development ahead.