Q&A: Louis-Michel Liger-Belair

One of the most famous Domaines in Vosne Romanée is celebrating its 200th anniversary this week. Comte Liger-Belair’s owner, Louis-Michel speaks to db about the impact of his wines in Asia and what he’d be doing if he wasn’t working in wine.

Explain the history of the Domaine and what you have planned for your 200th anniversary?

It started with my ancestor, General Louis Liger-Belair who was with Napoleon and settled in Burgundy in 1815 when he acquired the Domaine in Vosne Romanée. Liger is actually a Latin derivative of Loire which is where we were from originally. I am now the seventh generation owner since I took the Domaine on in 2000.

For the anniversary itself, we have two days of events. The first a La Romanée vertical tasting with a small group on 11 June. The tasting will span 65 vintages with the earliest being 1911 up to 2014. It’s a funny range! Importantly, we’ll also have a double tasting of 2002-2005 of La Romanée when Bouchard Père et Fils made half the wines and me, the other half.

Friday, 12 June is our actual anniversary. An all-day vertical tasting of La Romanée, La Grand Rue, Romanée Conti – all the flagships of the estate.  We’ll also host a concert with French violinist Nicolas Dautricourt and a dinner with Pascal Barbot of a three-Michlen starred restaurant L’Astrance in Paris who is closing for two days just for us.

So how have your wines performed in Asia over the last 10 years?

Not so bad. Our first 2000 vintage appeared in 2002 and 2003. Back then, we weren’t focused so much on Asia because our production was too small.  Pre-2006 we were just working with Japan and we had fewer than 10,000 bottles which wasn’t enough.

From then on however, we rented new vineyards and gradually expanded. It was a long process but about three years ago I would say that we took the place of Bordeaux in people’s minds. People are always on the lookout for something rarer than rare which we can offer. Also the young French sommeliers in Hong Kong are open to new offerings from Burgundy and the market is really coming alive for us.

In 2008 we launched our Golden Label Dragon Range. In Hong Kong and China we have people who are just looking for the best. If we offered them village wines, they wouldn’t drink them, so the Golden Dragon is just for them and we keep production at 80 cases a year.

A super lot of every bottle made by Louis-Michel, including the Golden Dragon Collection went for HK$494,000 – the highest price ever paid at a recent Acker auction in Hong Kong.

You’re working closely with Acker at the moment, do you think we will see your wines just being available via auction? 

No I don’t think so. We do have a deep relationship with Acker and have worked with them for a long time but it’s not the only way to sell our wines. We had a really successful recent auction with them but the aim is not putting everything in auction. It’s a good way for people to know that the wines are coming from directly from the estate and that’s good for me and our reputation.

Our next step in fact is getting the younger generation enjoying our wines. We held a recent masterclass with 12 of Watson’s Wines young consumers – just village and premier cru. We’re turning the idea around that only people in their 50s can enjoy Burgundy.

Is your distribution model the same in Asia as it is in Europe?

Almost. There is one importer by country in our top 25 countries in the world. It means there’s one less person on the chain which reduces mark up and enables them to forge special connections with restaurants and sommeliers. For example, Enoteca in Japan and Watson’s Wines in Hong Kong have built up incredible relations with key people in the industry.

How important are wine critics to the sale of your wines?

That’s a good question because I don’t think I have the answer yet. We do need them for sure. We’ve built up great relationships with some and maybe I wouldn’t be where I am now without them but I’m not sure people buy them because we have good marks. When people [in Asia] know about an estate they are more likely to stay loyal regardless of points.

What would you be doing if you weren’t in wine?

I’d be a wine auctioneer. Or an architect.  Involving the fine things in life.

And what motto do you live by?

If you have to only make one wine don’t make one wine for the whole world, just make the one that you love because you will always derive pleasure from drinking it.