2012 Bonnes Mares

Tasted blind at the annual "Burgfest" tasting in Beaune. The 2012 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru from Domaine de la Vougeraie put in a stellar showing under tough peer group. It has an intriguing animally nose with just a touch of menthol infusing the black cherry and raspberry fruit that lend it a medicinal personality. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, elegant in the mouth, sensual and almost opulence, yet there is an abiding sense of control and finesse here that takes this to a higher level. There is some very assiduous skillful winemaking here. This is a Bonnes-Mares that totally rocks - up there with the Roumier and de Vogüé's of this world. Chapeau winemaker Pierre Vincent.

(80% vendange entier ; 60% new oak): 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.

(80% vendange entier; 70% new oak; the production here was just 18 hectoliters per hectare): Good bright, dark red. Like a liqueur of raspberry on the nose. Sappy, smooth and densely packed, showing an almost decadent perfume to its red berry, white pepper and wild herb flavors. Thick but shapely wine with an exhilarating sugar/acid balance. At once seamless and energetic, with the structure to age. Winemaker Vincent, who doesn't much like very old Burgundies, recommends holding this one for seven years before pulling the cork. Seventy percent of this vineyard is in Chambolle-Musigny, where the protective walls of the quarry routinely yield very ripe grapes.