Wine Advisor
Georges Roumier, Bonnes Mares Grand Cru 2014
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Dark red. A sexy hint of woodsmoke complements sweet scents of cherry liqueur and purple berries. Tight-grained and fine, but with terrific inner-mouth lift to its dark berry, spice and violet flavors. Wonderfully juicy, lively wine with a light touch. Not a fleshy powerhouse, and not showing the obvious mineral structure today of the Ruchottes-Chambertin, but this utterly seamless wine is richer and fruitier. The noble tannins are almost invisible today and yet the finish boasts terrific thrust. This knockout will need a solid decade to approach maturity.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Bright, dark ruby-red. Pure, brooding aromas of black raspberry, blackberry, violet and licorice. Suave and fine-grained but tightly wound in the early going, with the violet element lifting the intense purple fruit and licorice flavors. Not particularly expressive today: a distinctly tannic, structured style of 2014, from a crop level of just 30 hectoliters per hectare. As is his usual practice, Roumier vinified his fruit from red and lighter soil separately but in 2014 he combined the two cuvées when the wines went in to barrel.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2014 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru has a fragrant, floral bouquet with touches of blueberry, violet, wet limestone and effervescent blood orange. There is simply wonderful delineation here. The palate is very well structured, linear and strict in accordance with the vintage, driving acidity here maintaining the freshness with superb minerality on the finish. Oh yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
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.
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