The 2019 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru includes around three-quarters whole bunch fruit and is matured in one-third new oak. Despite the small reduction on the nose, there is clearly impressive intensity in this Grand Cru, but it is more backward and more broody than the 2018 tasted from barrel 12 months earlier. With time, there are traces of iodine and Japanese nori . The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannins that frame the pure blackberry and bilberry fruit, awash with superb salinity that gets the saliva flowing. Certainly a more intellectual Bonnes-Mares, it gains depth and density toward a finish that feels exceptionally long on the aftertaste. God created wine so that Christophe Roumier could make fermented grape juice like this.

The 2019 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru unwinds in the glass with scents of raspberries, cherries, warm spices, rose petals, peonies and violets. Full-bodied, muscular and concentrated, it's rich and structured, with bright acids and prodigious reserves of powdery tannin. Broad-shouldered and powerful, it will—as usual—require patience.

'Terres rouges' is very close to the northern limit with Morey. 'Terres blanches' is above the path that dissects Bonnes Mares. Roumier has three parcels from far north to far south. Pruning identical. In 2016 he was able to include for the first time the fruit from an extra hectare of land owned by Ficofi – planted in 1995, in a good state and a little more vigorous than his – in the terres blanches. Now they have several, at least five, different parcels. Unracked cask sample. Serious stuff on the nose. Concentrated blackberry-jam impression on the palate. Dramatic and opulent. Quite sweet and with lots of elements here but maybe not the most appetising wine? Impressive, certainly. (JR)