Wine Advisor
Comte Georges de Vogue, Bonnes Mares Grand Cru 2010
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2010 Bonnes-Mares is a huge, spherical wine that fills out in every dimension. It truly is captivating from the very first taste. Black cherries, plums, smoke, graphite, licorice, menthol and tar burst from the glass as the wine shows off its statuesque, towering personality. The 2010 boasts stunning richness allied to powerful tannins in a full-bodied style that is simply dazzling. This is a dramatic, thrilling wine from de Vogüé, but it will test readers' patience. Those who can find the Bonnes-Mares should forget about it for at least 15 years.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Bright, deep red. Crushed blueberry, pomegranate, kirsch and licorice on the very fresh, perfumed nose, lifted by notes of lilac and peony. Suave and seamless on the palate, but with superb energy and lift to the flavors of cherry, purple fruits and spicy oak. Wonderfully juicy, sappy wine with a strong finishing note of blackberry, noble tannins and outstanding rising length. A brilliant Bonnes-Mares.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Purple-tinged red-ruby. Slightly reduced but nonetheless highly complex aromas of blackberry, licorice, menthol, violet and wild herbs, with a distinctly rocky quality adding another dimension. The palate offers a compelling combination of richness and verve, with sharp definition and luminosity to the flavors of cassis, crushed blackberry and minerals. The vibrant finish features firm, noble tannins and lovely rising perfume. With aeration, this only gained in complexity, revealing red cherry and a soil-driven saline nuance.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2010 Bonnes-Mares is a huge, spherical wine that fills out in every dimension. It truly is captivating from the very first taste. Black cherries, plums, smoke, graphite, licorice, menthol and tar burst from the glass as the wine shows off its statuesque, towering personality. The 2010 boasts stunning richness allied to powerful tannins in a full-bodied style that is simply dazzling. This is a dramatic, thrilling wine from de Vogue, but it will test readers’ patience. Those who can find the Bonnes-Mares should forget about it for at least 15 years. Anticipated maturity: 2025-2045. Long-time oenologist Francois Millet was away during my visit to Burgundy, so I can’t relay his always visually evocative thoughts on recent vintages. At the end of the day, though, these wines need no words; they speak for themselves, and then some. Commercial director Jean-Luc Pepin was kind enough to show me all of the 2010s and 2009s (from bottle), including the seldom seen Bourgogne Blanc. I will report on the 2009s in the April issue. A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet, various American importers, including: Atlanta Wholesale Wines, Atlanta, GA; tel. (404) 696-9440; C?Est Vin, District of Columbia; tel. (703) 243-3559; Dreyfus Ashby & Co., New York, NY; tel. (212) 818-0770
About the Producer
Domaine Comte Georges de Vogue is one of the most important estates in the Chambello-Musigny appellation, thanks to its stake in important vineyards. The Comte de Vogue is, as the English writer Charles Dickens once said, "as historic and admirable as a great mountain". The vineyard of the Comte de Vugo covers approximately 12.5 hectares, of which about 7 hectares are located in the Mussini vineyard (70% of the entire top vineyard) and about 2.5 hectares in the nearby Bernemar region. The grapes are all hand-harvested and the vast majority are destemmed (although in 1990 100% of the stems were retained). The wines are first fermented in vats, then aged for 18 months in small oak barrels (40% to 45% renewed), clarified with egg whites and lightly filtered before bottling. The wines are extremely intense and full-bodied, which is not surprising given the extremely low yields and the limestone soils of the Mussini vineyards. The wines of the Comtes de Vugo are not meant to be tasted young, and in outstanding vintages these very long-lived wines usually require 10 to 15 years of ageing. However, it is worth noting that the 2002 vintage of Musigny Old Vine is of particularly high quality. It has intense aromas of red cherry, spice and candied raspberry aromas, with a hint of oak. This noble, full-bodied, refined wine has fragrant floral flavours with fruity notes of red and black fruits. A more feminine wine than the bold, chewy, highly robust 1990 vintage, this is a work of art with delicate tannins.
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