Buying options
Tasting notes
Tasted blind at the annual "Burgfest" tasting in Beaune. The 2012 Richebourg Grand Cru from Domaine Thibaut Liger-Belair is a little oaky on the nose with full, quite rich red and black fruit, a hint of powdered coca but nothing too much to get worried about. The palate is medium-bodied with rounded tannin, moderate complexity but a little muffled on the finish at the moment and unlike the Richebourg from Etienne Grivot, it does not gain more clarity with aeration. Still, it is a very fine contribution to the vintage, though it is outperformed by others here.
Critic scores
Average Score
Neal Martin
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Deep red-ruby. Very deep but unforthcoming nose hints at black raspberry, violet and minerals, with complicating torrefaction notes of chocolate and coffee. Boasts outstanding thickness without weight but shows a distinctly austere menthol quality and already seems to be shutting down in the bottle. There's a pungent sappy oak element that the wine may need a long time to absorb. Most impressive today for its palate-saturating length and floral lift but this is a bit of a cipher in the early going.
Meat, tea-leaves, black cherry, liquorice – loads of interesting flavours. Much fresher and cleaner than their Vosne-Romanée Réas, but still has a mustiness on the finish. I’d want my Richebourg impeccable, and this one isn’t. (RH)
(100% destemmed): Good bright, dark red. Wild aromas of black raspberry, game and leather. Creamy-sweet on entry, then youthfully imploded in the middle, showing outstanding intensity and pungent minerality but totally unevolved today (Liger-Belair described it as a fetus). Combines power and elegance, and finishes with palate-staining perfume. Should be a great vin de garde but will probably require at least a decade in the cellar even to begin to approach its peak.