Grand Cru Burgundy

wines

A bottle of 1989 Roumier Bonnes Mares drunk with friends at La Paulée showed super-ripe, accessible fruit that seemed explosively aromatic and still incredibly youthful, with an aroma of bright cherries and hints of minerals, violets, and smoke. On the palate, the wine was rich yet elegantly balanced. At just over 20 years of age, this had opened and softened to where it no longer seemed forbiddingly dense. It is doubtless still ticking along nicely and should continue to age well for decades.Decanter | 98 DECBig and complex, with masses of fruit and tannins and a long, almost tough finish. A traditional, big wine that is drinkable now. 550 cases made.Wine Spectator | 93 WSThe 1989 vintage is not one that Christophe Roumier looks back on fondly, but his Bonnes-Mares is excellent and continues to cruise along beautifully at age twenty-five. This was the very first vintage where Christophe did away with multiple bottlings of Bonnes-Mares and only produced a single cuvée, which he has done in each subsequent vintage. The bouquet wafts from the glass in a mature and vibrant mix of black cherries, plums, woodsmoke, game, sous bois, mustard seed and a dollop of new oak. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, complex and still nicely plush at the core, with melted tannins, sound acids, fine focus and grip and a long, velvety and quite classy finish. Good juice at its apogee, but with plenty of life still in it. (Drink between 2014 - 2040)John Gilman | 93 JGDisplaying a fair depth of colour along with some lifted aromatics, the ’89 feels less ripe than many of the 1990s vintages. In fact this presents as a relatively lean wine, but it is certainly very stylish. It is one of the more savoury wines with some alpine strawberry fruit. It held up nicely in the glass without improving further. Tasted: February 2018.Jasper Morris | 93 JMAs elegant and pure as this wine usually is, the ’89 doesn’t seem to have quite the freshness that it should and while the now fully aromas are typical, which is to say there is plenty of earth, spice and game, it lacks real vibrancy. The concentrated big-bodied flavors, by contrast, are rich, structured, beautifully textured and complex and the backend offers solid if not genuinely stunning length. That said, 1989 is merely a very good vintage by the superb standards of this wine and for my taste it is drinking as well now as it’s ever going to. Tasted thrice recently with consistent notes.save for one bottle that displayed enough brett to materially detract from the drinking experience.Burghound | 91 BH