Bonnes Mares Grand Cru Reviews

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.

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.

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.