Producer note: This relatively new 7.5 ha domaine that began in 2002 has added some négociant wines so the total effective vineyard area is 9 ha; the négociant name is Thibault Liger-Belair Successeurs. It is directed by the young Thibault Liger-Belair, who is a cousin of Louis-Michel Liger-Belair (see above). Liger-Belair has also just added an estate in the Beaujolais, which has added yet more breadth to his range. He offered an interesting take on 2009, saying that it was a "vintage of sap. 2005 was a vintage of concentration but '09 really has that sappiness that gives the wines their charm. The fruit was rich in sugar but low in acidity and thus the big challenge was to retain the freshness. I had relatively generous yields of around 32 hl/ha but for my old vines, that is a lot and the biggest that I have had since I started. I did a very light vinification, which in some cases included no punching down at all as I wanted to avoid having robust, or even rustic, tannins. I also have already racked some of the wines out of cask to avoid inadvertently drying them out. In many cases, they already drink well as they have that minty character, which is to say fresh but not necessarily with much acidity behind the freshness. For me, 2009 is an excellent vintage but not truly a great one. I say this because I like tension in my wines and 2009 isn't really in that style. Still, they give plenty of pleasure and thus they should be very popular. And, while they are not as gifted as say 2001, 2002 and 2008 in terms of their transparency to the underlying terroir, they are at least moderate in that sense. Moreover, if you consider how many '03s are coming around and become more expressive of their terroirs, perhaps the '09s will evolve in that direction too." As I noted last year, some of the now in-bottle '08s were vinified with whole clusters and if they were used, I indicate the percentage wine by wine. Note that there is no Petits Monts in 2008 as it was declassified into the Aux Réas. (Vineyard Brands, www.vineyardbrands.com, Birmingham, AL; Lay & Wheeler, www.laywheeler.com, UK, O.W. Loeb, www.owloeb.com, UK and Berry Brothers & Rudd, www.bbr.com, UK).