It seems as if the wines of Comte Liger-Belair have been all the rage the past couple years. I have previously bought some at great prices and am considering selling them since I can use that money to subsidise my other buying since I have a limited budget. I don’t have an annual allocation of these wines and got lucky to find some a few years ago at great prices.
That all being said, is it worth keeping a bottle or two to try? For example, I will see an extra $400 per bottle I sell - which can buy me some really great wine to add to my cellar. Are there any other producers with similar style that I could get for potentially better value?
In my view as good as Burgundy gets… anything that is close will cost you just as much money so you aren’t coming out ahead…
I’d keep and drink unless you’re talking about the La Romanee bottling where you can bank $2-3K profit a btl or something…
Style is subjective and subjective opinions are easily influenced by price tags. An objective question is what does this producer do that other producers can’t or don’t. Not sure there’s anything in that category other than the price tag (and a monopole site). Sell 'em with zero regrets.
CLB is almost always open and delicious young. I have no idea how the current wines will age, but for the most part, who cares? They’re so delicious now. I’ve had a couple disjointed ones, but that’s unusual - for the most part, they’re just absolutely delicious young.
I may get in trouble here. Not a direct comparison. But I find many of Cathiard’s wines to be open, showy, lush, opulent, “sexy” (usually hate that descriptor but apt here) right out of the gate in a manner similar to LB.
I’ve had some older Cathiard courtesy of some friends, and they can be delicious older, though I’m not sure they were all that much more complex. Definitely some of the best 2003s I’ve had.
Cathiard can occasionally be a little bit too oaky for me, but overall I agree, they’re delicious wines.
You already have some great wine in your cellar. Of course, if you over-bought…
Not always the case - the 12s and 13s showed a lot of persistent reduction, you could leave them in a decanter for 3-4 hours without really helping - for that reason I’ve let them be…
I bought every wine he made 01-05, a smattering of 2006 and 2007s, and nothing after. After drinking the early wines a few years ago, I sold everything. I found them to be incredibly oaky, and unable to resolve their oak over time. The 01/02 Chaumes in particular had really dried out and turned into something that I didn’t enjoy drinking. But 1er cru vosne with a ton of oak isn’t my thing stylistically. Sounds like the wines have changed over time maybe they are different now, although I had a 2016 Clos du Chateau at a restaurant that didn’t make me regret selling at all. For that type of money, I’m heading directly to Rousseau.
A
I have a friend with a superb palate who is especially sensitive to over-oaking. He belongs to the Confrérie, and I guess one of their members finally coughed up a recent Liger-Belair La Romanée. My friend was quite unhappy, because he prefers to be disappointed by wines he cannot afford. He said the Liger-Belair was gorgeous in every way imaginable, and would improve for decades.
