Bonnes Mares Grand Cru Reviews

There is ample earth character to the markedly floral-scented nose of various red berries, soft wood and a hint of smoked game. The beautifully textured, if not particularly concentrated middleweight flavors possess excellent vibrancy as well as focused power that seems to build on the beautifully long finish that really tightens up as it sits on the palate. This is a deceptive wine in that it seems a bit light but delivers superb flavor authority.

The 2020 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru has 100% whole bunch, though stems neatly enmeshed on the nose with hints of blueberry and cassis infusing the red fruit. A little timid at the moment, it will open with bottle age. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy red fruit, fine acidity, just a little chewiness on the entry. Structured on the finish, this is quite a "serious" Bonnes-Mares that just needs to muster more charm on the finish

The 2015 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru is very pretty, wafting from the glass with aromas of strawberry, blood orange, plum, peony and some whole cluster spice on the upper register. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, supple and expansive, with silky tannins, an open-knit but juicy core, and a sapid, almost saline finish. A delicate, transparent and rather stylized Bonnes Mares from Domaine de la Vougeraie.

The 2016 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru, also 100% whole cluster fruit, had a very open-knit, expressive bouquet that maybe felt a little monotone when compared directly with the Charmes-Chambertin. The palate is medium-bodied with abundant red berry fruit, almost pastille-like in purity, quite sensual although just missing that knockout, killer blow on the linear finish. This Bonnes-Mares prefers to play it safe. I would like to see that killer instinct that elevated the 2015 to a higher level.

The 2014 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru, containing 80% whole cluster fruit this year, has a focused, delineated nose, perhaps missing the exuberance that this vineyard can bestow, but it unfurls nicely in the glass revealing touches of woodland and undergrowth (actually quite Musigny-like!). The palate is fresh on the entry with a fine line of acidity, great tension and focus here with a slightly tapered and yet long and tender finish. This is a sophisticated Bonnes Mares that is a little teasing out of barrel, but will grow up into a great, perhaps more 'serious' wine.

An intensely floral and spicy nose that is wonderfully elegant, fresh and admirably pure speaks of wet stone, red currant plus warm earth, wood and sauvage hints. There is plenty of muscle to the precise and mineral-inflected big-bodied flavors that possess copious amounts of dry extract that buffers the very firm tannins and allowing for perfect balance on the mouth coating and linear finish. A classic Bonnes Mares that will require 15 to 20 years to arrive at its majority.

An intensely floral nose of violets, lavender and lilac serves to add considerable elegance to the very fresh red pinot fruit that is substantially cut with wet stone and earth nuances. The large-bodied and imposingly structured flavors possess outstanding mid-palate density with an abundance of mouth coating and tannin-buffering dry extract, all wrapped in a textured, driving and built to age finish. This brooding and tightly wound effort will require close to 20 years to reach its apogee.

An admirably fresh, cool and airy mix displays notes of lavender, oak, red berries, cassis, spice, wet stone and discreet game nuances along with just enough herbal character to notice. There is good richness to the mouth coating and muscular broad-shouldered flavors that possess good delineation and excellent energy before culminating in a dusty, balanced and palate coating finish that delivers excellent length though the herbal character does resurface. This slight vegetal element is admittedly subtle and may very well dissipate with age but for the moment it's sufficiently noticeable that it is a concern.

A background whisper of wood spice adds breadth to the aromas of exceptionally fresh and earthy red berries, rose petal, Asian style tea and a hint of underbrush. There is excellent richness to the muscular yet relatively refined, intense and tautly muscular big-bodied flavors that are shaped by a firm but not really austere core of ripe tannins on the impressively well-balanced and highly persistent finale. Good stuff that should amply repay extended cellaring.

A strikingly complex if highly restrained nose brings together notes of admirably fresh red currant, plum, lavender, rose petal, earth and spice nuances that are also trimmed in just enough wood to notice. There is excellent volume to the big-bodied, intense and muscular yet seductively textured medium weight plus flavors, all wrapped in an overtly powerful and long finish. Plenty of patience will also be required.

A pungent nose presently consists of wood toast and reduction. Interestingly the massively constituted flavors are even bigger, richer and more powerful and the copious amount of dry extract is seriously impressive and this is just as well as the tannic spine is markedly prominent on the driving and strikingly long finish. This is a brute of wine yet like the Mazoyères it manages to avoid being rustic though with that being said, no one is likely to find this to be particularly refined. A "buy and forget you own it" wine.

The 2010 Bonnes-Mares is at once powerful yet sensual and totally enveloping. Layers of fruit resonate from this deep, baritone Bonnes-Mares. All of the elements continue to build towards the huge, explosive finish. The Bonnes-Mares is a wine with a bright future, but it will require considerable patience along the way.

The 2009 Bonnes-Mares is wonderfully nuanced and detailed. It is easily the most reticent of the estate's 2009 grand crus. The wine's energy and length come through most clearly at this stage. The Bonnes-Mares deserves to be cellared for at least a few years, but its pedigree is ample and significant even today. Readers will need to be patient.

Bright full red. Reticent, very pure aromas of candied cherry, rose petal, white pepper and blood orange. Lovely delicacy and inner-mouth tension to the penetrating flavors of pomegranate, cranberry and spices. A wine of outstanding finesse, finishing juicy, vibrant, perfumed and long. This classic Bonnes-Mares will need extended aging: I wouldn't think of uncorking a bottle for at least eight to ten years.

Full medium-deep red. Sexy, soil-inflected aromas of briary raspberry, brown spices, woodsmoke, white pepper and truffley underbrush. Sappy and sharply delineated, showing rather powerful wild red berry fruit along with complicating notes of minerals, roasted herbs and brown spices. A superb, nuanced expression of this great grand cru, offering a complex blend of light and darker soils (70% of the estate's vines are in Chambolle-Musigny). Powerful acidity gives this wine a whiplash of a finish.

Good medium red. Very ripe, soil-driven aromas of mocha, game, tobacco and cocoa powder. Strong red fruit and spice flavors emerge on the wonderfully dense, sweet palate, with an element of saline minerality providing another dimension. The wine's superb energy gives the highly concentrated fruit a bulletproof quality. Impressively dense and large-scaled for the year, finishing with substantial ripe tannins and excellent balance and length. Vincent's wines have been distinctly fresher and firmer since 2010 as he's now picking a bit earlier to avoid surmaturité.

Very good deep, healthy red. The most floral of these 2014s, conveying lovely perfumed lift to the aromas of black fruits, spices and honeysuckle. Communicates wonderful ripeness and detail without any impression of heaviness or weight. Really superb energy here, no doubt partly due to the vinification with 80% whole clusters. Most impressive today on the very long, fine-grained finish, where the savory red fruit and blackberry flavors build slowly and linger long. This should be long-lived.

Bright medium red. Sexy, almost exotic sweetness to the aromas of cherry, raspberry, wild herbs and stone. Wonderfully ripe but dry, conveying a rare combination of outstanding volume and great finesse without any impression of dryness--or easy sweetness, for that matter. A classic uncompromising young Bonnes-Mares but without the hardness of old-style wines from this long-aging grand cru. The spicy finish rises inexorably. As youthful as this is, its remarkably fine-grained texture gives it an easy digestibility. This protected site really seals in the heat, said Vincent, who brought in this fruit at close to 13% potential alcohol and did not chaptalize.

The 2009 Bonnes-Mares is wonderfully nuanced and detailed. It is easily the most reticent of the estate’s 2009 grand crus. The wine’s energy and length come through most clearly at this stage. The Bonnes-Mares deserves to be cellared for at least a few years, but its pedigree is ample and significant even today. Readers will need to be patient. Anticipated maturity: 2019-2039.

The 2010 Bonnes-Mares is at once powerful yet sensual and totally enveloping. Layers of fruit resonate from this deep, baritone Bonnes-Mares. All of the elements continue to build towards the huge, explosive finish. The Bonnes-Mares is a wine with a bright future, but it will require considerable patience along the way. Anticipated maturity: 2025-2040.  

Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2011 horizontal tasting in Beaune. Lighter in color, there are plenty of pretty, demure red berry fruits on the nose of the Bonnes-Mares 2011 from Domaine de la Vougeraie: very pure and translating the essence of Pinoté, albeit not the kind of aromatics for someone seeking opulence. The palate is medium-bodied with very well-judged acidity. This just glides across the palate and down the throat in effortless fashion. Bon vin.

Tasted blind at the Burgfest tasting in Beaune, the 2013 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru was missing some complexity on the nose compared to the Bonnes-Mares from Bruno Clair, with sweet red cherries and a touch of kirsch. Yet it needs to show more mineralité and terroir expression. The palate is medium-bodied with ripe red cherries and strawberry and showing quite a lot of structure towards the finish that grips the palate. I would just like more persistence to show through here. Tasted September 2016.

The 2015 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru comes from the domaines parcel in "Terres Rouges", in fact, the last vineyard before you reach Morey-Saint-Denis. It has a very correct, almost reserved bouquet at first, like several wines from this vineyard at the moment. It is very terroir-expressive with hints of slate and gun flint emerging with time in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with a sorbet-like freshness on the entry, here more of the Bonnes-Mares opulence and richness coming through, building to a bravura finish of orange zest, black fruit and spices that leaves the tongue tingling long after the wine has departed. Outstanding.