DOMAINE DROUHIN LAROZE Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru

WA: (90-92)

The 2015 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru includes 40% whole bunch this year and that lends complexity on the nose with brambly black fruit, briary and touches of undergrowth. The palate is medium-bodied with a structured, slightly tough opening. It is very structured with firm tannin, very saline in the mouth with a muscular finish that will soften with requisite bottle age. It is a fine Bonnes-Mares, but I know it can be even better.

WA: (90-92)

The 2016 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru was perhaps the one grand cru that I felt was a little disjointed and did not quite deliver the vivacity of the Chapelle-Chambertin or Latricières. It includes 40% whole bunch fruit and was depleted by 30% because of the frost, but it just came across a little dolorous at the moment. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin. This feels a little foursquare and conservative and just needs more of the flamboyance and blue fruit you associate with this vineyard. Maybe this Bonnes-Mares just got stage fright on the day I visited?