Always one of the highlights of the range chez Lignier, the 2021 Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru Vieilles Vignes is lovely, offering up aromas of dark berries and plums mingled with hints of licorice, mint and baking spices. Medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with powdery tannins, lively acids and a long, sapid finish, it's one 2021 that's built for the cellar.

The 2020 Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru Vieilles Vignes is deep and concentrated, unwinding in the glass with aromas of cassis and wild berries mingled with warm spices, orange rind, burning embers and forest floor. Medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, it's rich and concentrated, with lively acids and powdery tannins. Built to age, it will reward patience.

The 2019 Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru Vieilles Vignes is shaping up beautifully, mingling aromas of dark berry fruit, orange rind, espresso roast, forest floor and warm spices in an incipiently complex bouquet. Medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it's deep and complete, its serious long-haul structure largely concealed by a lively core of fruit. As usual, this "baby Clos de la Roche" derives from a parcel planted in the 1930s and 1940s that straddles the climats Faconnières and Chenevery

Unwinding in the glass with a deep, youthfully reserved bouquet of cassis, plums, rich soil tones, dark chocolate and warm spices, Lignier's 2018 Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru Vieilles Vignes is medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with a deep and textural core, lively acids and a long, mineral finish. Serious and elegantly muscular, this is a long-haul proposition, and I will be adding some to my own cellar.

The 2017 Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru Vieilles Vignes is superb, wafting from the glass with a complex bouquet of warm spices, raspberries, cherries, dark chocolate and candied peel. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, layered and textural, with the most depth and dimension of Lignier's premiers crus, its deep core of fruit largely concealing the wine's fine-grained structuring tannins, concluding with a saline finish. This cuvée hails from a parcel that straddles the climats Faconnières and Chenevery that was planted in 1936, 1942 and 1943, and which the Lignier family has always vinified as a single cuvée.