2013 Bonnes Mares

(25% vendange entier ; just 20 hectoliters per hectare produced): Explosive aromas of chocolate cake, violet, licorice and pepper. Cherry and chocolate flavors show terrific sucrosité , with brisk underlying minerality and strong acidity giving a sappy quality to the thick middle palate. Most impressive today on the sharply delineated, rising finish. This is beautifully balanced from the start but it's hard to believe that it won't shut down in the bottle.

From the domaine's small 0.24-hectare parcel, the 2013 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru is ripe and pretty, if slightly monochromatic, with a blueberry-scented bouquet that needs a little more energy and animation. The palate is medium-bodied with a confit entry, black cherries intermingling with raisin and fresh prune, with decent definition toward the finish. This feels candied but lacking authority.

From the domaine's small 0.24-hectare parcel, the 2013 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru is ripe and pretty, if slightly monochromatic, with a blueberry-scented bouquet that needs a little more energy and animation. The palate is medium-bodied with a confit entry, black cherries intermingling with raisin and fresh prune, with decent definition toward the finish. This feels candied but lacking authority. ||I met cellarmaster Frédéric Weber at Bouchard Père this year at their winery (on the Beaune péripherique) bustling with tourists. Once we had gotten away from the madding crowds, I tasted through their entire range. “It was a little complicated in the vineyard,” Frédéric explained somewhat euphemistically. “The winter was cold and humid and this retarded the vegetative cycle by around 20 days. There was a lot of coulure in the Côte de Nuits so there was a small harvest. We lost around 30% of the crop from flowering there, but in the Côte de Beaune the flowering was better. However, there was the hailstorm on 23 July and for example, the vineyard of Pommard Pezerolles was completely lost. Fortunately, July was sunnier and it [the growing cycle] managed to catch up. We de-leafed the vines and we found that the berries were small and this aided aeration. We commenced the harvest on 30 September and it finished quite late on 11 October. We undertook a slightly longer maceration this year and we did one pigeage per day and no remontage for a more progressive fermentation. So in total there was an 18 to 22 days cuvaison. There was also greater stem addition this year up to 30% and these were covered in the vat with de-stemmed berries.” I must confess that I found the range of wines from this historic producer a little inconsistent, in particular with regard to the reds that lacked the depth, fruit concentration, the panache of the more impressive 2012s last year. That is to be expected given the growing season. Matters improved once we began broaching the whites and especially around Puligny. Bouchard’s Puligny Combettes is as good as anything I tasted from that premier cru during my travels, likewise their Meursault Perrières: both excellent examples. My advice is to tread carefully in 2013. There are certainly some gems, but also wines that I suspect will be overshadowed by the 2012 and the forthcoming 2014s. | eRobertParker.com.December, 2014