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Description
Tasting notes

Reviewed by: William Kelley
The 2022 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru is deep and resonant, unfurling in the glass with aromas of raspberries and red cherries mingling with rose petal, Indian spices and vanilla pod. Full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it's dense and multidimensional, yet it avoids the hulking muscularity of which this cuvée is capable, retaining a cool core of fruit and concluding with a long, sapid finish. Roumier prefers his more ethereal (and more overtly whole-cluster inflected) Amoureuses, but I gravitate towards the profound Bonnes-Mares.

Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2022 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru includes 75% whole bunches, but you cannot detect a stem on the nose. This is an ebullient bouquet with exquisite black cherries, wild strawberry fruit, crushed violet, and hints of inkwell. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins. There’s real backbone here and layers of mineral-rich red and blue fruit. The finish that fans out gloriously with lip-smacking salinity. Stunning.
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.