Wine Advisor
Georges Roumier, Bonnes Mares Grand Cru 1996
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Pierre Rovani
Displaying a dark ruby color and a fabulous nose of candied red fruits and cookie dough, this wine is an immensely rich, multi-dimensional masterpiece. This broad-shouldered, ample, oily-textured, masculine, structured, and medium-to-full-bodied wine is formidably concentrated and complex. Highly-focused blackberries, violets, lilies, stones, earth, and cassis flavors are intermingled with grilled and spiced new oak. Its prodigiously long finish is expansive, rendering its copious and supple tannins invisible. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2017. Roumier informed me he was planning to bottle his 1996s earlier than usual to "trap the fruit." He is of the opinion that they will not be exuberant, charming, and seductive following bottling. Virtually every vigneron agreed that the 1996s have been a delight to drink from the moment the grapes were pressed. Yet Roumier thinks they will need years to be expressive. Those 1996s that I have tasted stateside have maintained their forward, fruity character, but time will tell. Importer: Chateaux and Estates Wine Co., New York, NY; Tel; (212) 572-7725.
About the Producer
The domaine was founded in 1924 by Georges Roumier, who began domaine bottling in 1945. He was succeeded in 1957 by his son Jean-Marie and now grandson Christophe, who joined his father in 1982 and took over completely in 1992. Most of the wines are rented (en fermage) from family members although Ruchottes Chambertin is held on a share cropping deal with an external proprietor, Michel Bonnefond. The wines are seductively fruity in their youth yet with excellent ageing potential. The grapes are sorted in the vineyard, with a table de tri at the winery since 2003. They are mostly destemmed, albeit depending on vineyard and vintage, with a few more stems being used recently – then placed in wooden fermenters. The juice is given a cool soak at 15° then allowed to start naturally. The juice is punched down twice a day and temperature controlled so as not to exceed 32°C. There is no great reliance on new wood in the maturation cellar, with 15-25% being used for village wines, 25-40% for premiers crus and no more than 50% for Bonnes Mares. In recent years Christophe has been searching for, and achieving, a greater sense of precision in his wines.
1981(1)1989(1)1990(1)
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