2006 Bonnes Mares

Bouchard's 2006 Bonnes Mares displays the typically wild character of a youthful wine from its great site. Strikingly and pungently redolent of sassafras, bitter-sweet herbal concentrates, smoke, resin, and lightly-cooked red and black berries, what this might lack in palate refinement it compensates for in energetic interplay and emphatic finishing intensity of berry fruit, smoke, and pungent herbal essences. Look for it to settle down a bit over the next 2-3 years and be worth following for at least 6-8, as both stamina and stable structure seem assured. Director Philippe Prost emphasized the importance of flexible and surgical picking (with a crew numbering upwards of 300) and getting his crop to Bouchard's battery of presses within two hours via a fleet of mini-vans. He insists that relatively little triage was necessary on the domaine vineyards (as opposed to those under contract) and the estate wines are certainly predictably stronger as a group. (I have generally mentioned in the notes that follow which wines are from Bouchard's domaine and which from contract fruit, but have explicitly noted this as part of a wine's description, only if there are two versions of the same appellation within the present portfolio.) The fruit was crushed very gently and the wines racked only once – at 10-14 months, than usual – explains Prost, in order to guard against exposed or drying tannins, a policy which my tastings suggest was generally successful. Importer: Henriot, Inc, New York, NY; tel. (212) 605-6767