Wine Advisor
Georges Roumier, Bonnes Mares Grand Cru 2019
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: William Kelley
The 2019 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru unwinds in the glass with scents of raspberries, cherries, warm spices, rose petals, peonies and violets. Full-bodied, muscular and concentrated, it's rich and structured, with bright acids and prodigious reserves of powdery tannin. Broad-shouldered and powerful, it will—as usual—require patience.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2019 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru includes around three-quarters whole bunch fruit and is matured in one-third new oak. Despite the small reduction on the nose, there is clearly impressive intensity in this Grand Cru, but it is more backward and more broody than the 2018 tasted from barrel 12 months earlier. With time, there are traces of iodine and Japanese nori. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannins that frame the pure blackberry and bilberry fruit, awash with superb salinity that gets the saliva flowing. Certainly a more intellectual Bonnes-Mares, it gains depth and density toward a finish that feels exceptionally long on the aftertaste. God created wine so that Christophe Roumier could make fermented grape juice like this.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2019 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru includes around three-quarters whole bunch fruit and is matured in one-third new oak. Despite the small reduction on the nose, there is clearly impressive intensity in this Grand Cru, but it is more backward and more broody than the 2018 tasted from barrel 12 months earlier. With time, there are traces of iodine and Japanese nori. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannins that frame the pure blackberry and bilberry fruit, awash with superb salinity that gets the saliva flowing. Certainly a more intellectual Bonnes-Mares, it gains depth and density toward a finish that feels exceptionally long on the aftertaste. God created wine so that Christophe Roumier could make fermented grape juice like this.
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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Package Size
12 x 75cl3 x 75cl
