Sweetly ripe black raspberry, pungently bitter-sweet herbal concentrate (bay, fennel, and horehound), buddleia perfume, and wood smoke vie for attention in the aromatic display of Dujac's 2006 Bonnes Mares. It exhibits a sweetness and concentration of primary fruit one rarely encounters in this vintage, yet it tones down the savagery of the site in its textural refinement and the sense of harmoniously entwined threads of fruit, herb, floral, and carnal flavors in a long finish that still doesn't lack for the 'sizzle' of berry skin, citrus zest, and herbal bitter-sweetness. Where the corresponding Echezeaux displays vintage-typical virtues, this is something of an exception. I suspect it will also be exceptionally age-worthy in the context of its vintage, and probably worth following for at least a decade ...
WA93December 2009
**Don't Miss!** A beautifully nuanced and highly complex nose of mostly blue berry and cassis that is cool and pure slides seamlessly into surprisingly supple and relatively forward broad-shouldered flavors that possess even more depth than the nose, all wrapped into a finish supported by a firm tannic spine where the tannins are dense but fine. This is a first rate Bonnes Mares that will require plenty of time to reach its apogee because despite the accessible mid-palate, the finish is very tight.
BH94January 2008