1995 Bonnes Mares

The 1995 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru has long been a really fantastic wines, as all that Christophe Roumier made in this vintage are. That said, you cannot guarantee every bottle and here the bottle in Hong Kong showed better than in London, similar to another opened in Beaune earlier that year. It has a stunning, quixotic, slightly floral bouquet that delivers unerring purity and intensity. There is a little more blue fruit in situ than other vintages. The palate has an almost symmetrical balance: fine tannin, perfectly pitched acidity, capturing the exuberance and precocity of Bonnes-Mares without any garish flamboyance. “This just lights up the senses...” I wrote in Hong Kong – an effervescent and glorious wine that will give another two decades of drinking pleasure. Tasted at the Roumier verticals in Hong Kong and London.

This was the first time that I had tasted the 1995 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru from Christophe Roumier. It is said that he did nothing wrong in this vintage and this splendid bottle attests to that (though another bottle was slightly corked). It has a bouquet that clearly evinces Grand Cru quality: a complex, nuanced aromatic profile of red cherries, blueberry, cold stone and iris, all delivered with quite brilliant delineation. The palate does not disappoint. It has exquisite poise, supremely fine tannin and delivers that opulence and lusciousness you expect from Bonnes-Mares. The only fault is that you will finish your glass too quickly and the current market value. Those with bottles in their cellar ... I am jealous. Tasted September 2016.

Heady perfumed nose. Thick and treacley and rich and concentrated. Really tingly and rich. Long. Dense and sweet. Structure too. (JR)