Lucie et Auguste Lignier

Domaine L&A Lignier produced their first vintage in 2006, they had bottled 2001-2005 vintages from inheritance, of which 2001-2003 were vinified by Romain Lignier, 2004 and 2005 were presumably made by Hubert and Laurent Lignier. The L&A Lignier wines from 2001-2005 are exactly the same as Hubert Lignier 2001-2005, but sells at a considerably lower price as L&A Lignier is less-known.

Over his 10+ years of taking more and more control of the winemaking, Romain mainly looked to increase the length of pre-fermentation maceration, believing it was better to extract here rather than during the fermentation as preferred by his father. The grapes are destemmed before a fermentation mediated by natural, local yeasts and takes place in open-top cement tanks. Romain and friends used to do the pigeage the traditional way – bare legs and all. There is a cold soak maceration period prior of around 5 days prior to fermentation. Fermentation tends to be relatively long, generally lasting around 15 to 20 days. Kellen now (hygiene in mind) covers her tanks, but retains the ‘manual push-downs’. There is restrained use of new oak for the élevage, typically 20-30% for the villages wines, ~50% for the premiers and 90% for the grand crus. Total élevage of ~18 months for the villages wines and 20-24 months for the higher appellations before being bottled.