2012 Bonnes Mares
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Tasting notes
Tasted blind at the annual "Burgfest" tasting in Beaune. The 2012 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru displayed the most reduction of the five Bonnes-Mares tasted together, but underneath there are intense black cherry, cassis and truffle aromas that gather momentum in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin. This is succulent and poised, very harmonious and elegant, gently building to a very satisfying, mineral-led finish. This is a superb Bonnes-Mares from Henri Boillot.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Pretty medium red color. Delicate, complex aromas of strawberry, minerals, smoke, earth, pepper and underbrush, plus a note of noble vegetility. Soil-driven and seamless, showing a lovely balance of sweet fruit, saline minerality and spicy underbrush components. At once creamy and energetic, this wine is sexy and harmonious from the outset. But its noble tannins and superb length suggest that it will evolve gracefully in bottle. Shows its terroir as much as its vintage.
(just one new barrel of this wine): Bright medium red. Explosive aromas of cherry liqueur, red licorice, wild herbs, exotic spices and sexy oak. Then sweet-verging-on-exotic but energetic too in the mouth, with spicy oak and saline minerality giving lift to the middle palate. Lush but not at all outsized. Finishes with a serious tannic spine and building spice character. This sample stood out as different from the rest of these 2012s owing to its oak element: am I underrating it today?
About the producer
Based in Meursault and farming some of the finest vineyards in the Côte de Beaune, Henri Boillot is a leading address in Burgundy. He crafts fine Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but the estate is best known for its flagship monopole vineyard, Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Clos de la Mouchère.