2002 Bonnes Mares

The 2002 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru is a wine that I have met for five years. Examining my previous note, this seems to have meliorated in recent years, displaying outstanding transparency on the nose, more mineralité than the 2002 Les Cras poured alongside (also blind). Perhaps there is a little more black fruit here than I was expecting. The palate is medium-bodied with wonderful structure: filigree tannin, pitch-perfect acidity and superb tension from start to finish. There is a hint of balsamic towards the finish that I remarked upon a few years ago, but overall this is a wonderful Bonnes-Mares that unfurls with each passing moment in the glass. Tasted at the Roumier vertical in Hong Kong.

Good medium red; not especially saturated. Hugely aromatic nose offers flamboyant red berry, truffle and earth scents, but this bottle is beyond its floral stage. Sweet, plush and concentrated, showing a wonderfully silky texture to its slightly high-toned berry flavors. Really flows on the middle palate but the wine's tannic spine gives support to the finish. Like many other 2002s, this is a bit more advanced on the nose than on the palate. Very sexy wine, although Christopher Roumier noted that "the 2002s have evolved quicker than we thought they would."

I have not tasted the 2002 Bonnes-Mares for several years. This bottle has an exquisite, delineated bouquet that suggests those precocious dark berry fruits have mellowed and given way to scents of Indian ink and a splash of balsamic. The palate is marked by a fleshy sweet entry and forward, slightly aggressive tannins that coalesce with aeration in the glass. There is a touch of hardness toward the finish, indicating that it might benefit from another two or three years in bottle. This is a stubborn Bonnes-Mares that has yet to really settle into its groove, although that may come in time. Tasted November 2013.