The 2008 Bonnes Mares is a huge, intense wine endowed with tons of fruit, but wrapped around a powerful, focused frame. The tannins are big, but also beautifully integrated. This towering Burgundy will require an extraordinary amount of patience before revealing its true pedigree, but it is clearly magnificent.

Red raspberry and rhubarb allied to herbal elixir, brown spices, as well as citrus zest, curry, and white pepper pungency make for a head-turning nose and tongue-tingling, tonsil-shaking palate performance and finish from Roumier's 2008 Bonnes Mares. Here is one of those 2008s of striking cut and clarity; so vibrant it seems to be electrically charged. Indeed, its sheer audacity may not appeal to every pinotphile. Roasted meat juices and chalky as well as saline minerality add complexity. The abundant though fine tannins and pungent as well as bitter elements might take this in a more austere direction after bottling - "I think it could have benefited from 10% less new wood," Roumier remarks - but I am confident of a rebound and would anticipate a memorable experience from bottles at roughly 8-18 years of age. Christophe Roumier says his 2008 fruit demanded rigorous sorting to remove under-ripe bunches (whereas in 2007 this was necessary to remove rot), but he liked what was left enough to indulge in a significant proportion (most frequently 50%) of stems and whole clusters for the fermentations. "With such tiny, perfect berries, it was almost a shame to de-stem any of them," he remarks. Late to go through malo, like so many others of that year, these 2008s certainly preserve the vintage's primary virtues of vivacity and interactive complexity. Not more than 50% new wood was employed, to guard against loss of the vintage's vividly bright fruit in a vintage Roumier felt was unusually sensitive in that regard. Some of the 2008s remind him of 1980 or, more precisely, of what the 1980s could have become given today's standards of viticulture and selection. Roumier has a higher opinion of 2007 and their age-worthiness than do I, considering them superior to 2006 or 2008 - and given the way the two that I tasted from bottle showed, that opinion is not inexplicable. (I tasted the other Roumier 2007s too early in their evolution to render proper verdicts, although they were certainly effusively generous if not yet complex even pre-malo.) Roumier employed comparable percentages of stems and whole clusters, and indulged in more frequent pigeage than in 2008, comparing his resulting 2007s with 1985s. Importer: Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines Company, New York, NY; tel. (212) 419-1400

Good full medium red. Aromas of wild berries, pepper, smoke and underbrush. Rich, sweet and floral but without quite the energy of the Amoureuses. More powerful on the back end but less subtle and pristine. "Like a big mass today" is the way Roumier describes this large-scaled but rather monolithic wine. This was from riper fruit than most of the other 2008s here: 12.7% natural alcohol, chaptalized to 13.2%.

The 2008 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru has a very well defined bouquet with crushed strawberry, loam (almost peat?) and terracotta scents on the nose that just seems to expand with aeration. The palate is underpinned by edge tannins, not as sumptuous as the 2005 or 2009 of course but it gently fans out on the classic, fresh, oyster shell tinged finish. Give it a couple more years.

A background touch of wood spice surrounds red berry fruit, plum and floral notes that include violet and rose, animale and soil tones that continue on the earth-inflected, rich, sappy and moderately concentrated but gorgeously balanced flavors that possess real character and excellent power on the impressively long and youthfully austere finish. This has both style and personality but what really distinguishes it is how complete it is. Drink: 2020+
-Burghound.com, Issue 41. Tasted: Jan 01, 2011

Deep for Roumier. Mid crimson. Really quite rich on the nose for Roumier and certainly very expressive even at this early stage. Rich and super fruity. Almost boiled sweet/candy flavours. A little lighter than de Vogüé and Mugnier, but precise. Racy. Ballerina build again, although it may eventually prove to have great strength underneath! (JR)