Thibault Liger-Belair, Richebourg Grand Cru, Burgundy, France, 2008, 750ml

Opened for 7.5hrs and single decanted for 3hrs. Dark ruby, vibrant. It was mainly tart and structure dominated when I first tasted it. The long aeration obviously not long enough to bring this beast out of the fortress. The nose displays a bit of stem and reduction. However, it can’t hide the huge depth of underlying sweet dark cherry fruits, mineral and spices. I can sense there are a lot more materials hiding there. Full bodied, this wine tops the Noellat at least a notch up in term of scale and depth if not the sense of elegance. Very hard to access now, but this has all the materials and balance to evolve at least 1.5 – 2decades. Massive fine grained tannin for fantastic presence and bite all the way through to the explosive, intense finish.

I poured the remaining wine from the decanter back to the bottle. 2nd day (24hrs double decanting). Not surprise that this wine is still going strong in the bottle. More expressive bouquet of floral and Asian spice. The palate is getting sweeter as the sweet dark fruits surface and more delicious as the tannin has melted down. Finish is fresh, intense and long with mineral and a hint of stem lingering. 93-95

Sleepy Dave, cellartracker.com, July 2012