This came out yesterday, courtesy of Neal martin. 30 vintages from 1945 to 2012. Some real enthusiasm and high scores for some of the older stuff but the 1990s and 2000s vintages mostly score in the 89-93 range (with a handful of exceptions, but no fireworks). Does that match with the experience of people on this board? I’ve had a fair bit of roumier (albeit mostly cras and ruchottes) and found that they needed time to show well and where always more on the more understated end but represented one kind of burgundy perfection (very different from, say, CLB or Rousseau who both represent a different kind of perfection).
Brad England was at the event in the UK and posted on it awhile ago,
I seem to remember he really enjoyed some of the wines
I remember having a 1990 Roumier Bonnes Mares some years ago that doest impress me much. It still had a very strong structure but was almost charmless. It was all potential. If that wine will ever open up? I don’t know. What a difference to the wonderful wines from Rousseau or DRC from the same vintage. Definitely not my cup of tea.
The '93, '99, '01, '02, '05, '07, '08 are all great wines.
A few older wines like the '82, '88 and '92 were good but maybe not great.
Seems to have been some stylistic changes in recent years with younger vintages seemingly more accessible earlier than some older wines, but the overall quality is still there.
Had an '85 many years ago that was simply outstanding. Worth in the 6k range? no, but still outstanding none the less.
I love Roumier Bonnes Mares, but, e.g., I had the 1995 (which most consider a very successful vintage at Roumier) in 2015 and 2016 after not having had it since early days. I loved it both times, but it isn’t a magical wine for me like Rousseau Chambertin, and I don’t see how it is worth its street value. Maybe in another 20 years. Or maybe it depends on your palate.
I’ve had the 1990, 1996, 1999, 2000, and 2001 in the past, and the wines are great but no magic moments.
I have a bottle of the 1993 that I’m not sure what to do with given its street value, but I can’t recall ever trying the 1993.
At its level I’d say the village Chambolle is more of an IT wine.
Thomas, what is CLB? My general experience with epiphany (WOW) burgs has been with those 30 years of age plus. With grand cru more like 40 yrs to get that wow factor. I recently had a 1966 Beaune with a designation, but not premier Cru. It was wonderful. I think those 1990 Roumiers may be fantastic in 20yrs.
Comte Liger Belair.
FWIW, I do get the WOW factor of the Roumier Bonnes Mares. Due to the style of the wine though, it’s not in the same category as Rousseau Chambertin which is a wine of far more grace. Roumier BM is a far more powerful and dense wine. I do not disagree that the wine needs a lot of time, but having gotten to drink a decent amount in my former job, I can pull apart the wines and enjoy them in their youth. There are a number of vintages that Neal had here that I was far more enthusiastic about than he was (notably the 1997 which has a lot more fruit than his notes indicate, and the 2004 which only had the slightest tinge of green on the nose and not on the palate), but I also didn’t get to taste this many vintages side by side, and I’m sure he has good reasons for his ratings since he has quite a bit more context. I thoroughly enjoyed the read, and I remain quite jealous too!
Here’s the thread:
Probably the finest Red Burgundy I’ve yet experienced. Grace and depth with an exquisite nose and holding well out of magnum. Maybe these need 40+ years for magic.
IMO, Rousseau wines are much more effusive and revealing on opening than Roumier wines (likely because of the all new oak in Rousseau’s Chambertins. The latter Roumier’s Bonnes Mares, itself…can be very much a Morey in style…ie, masculine and muscular. For me, Chambertins of all appellations in Rousseau’s hands are much more user friendly and easier to appreciate.
I love both. They are just different…and Roumier needs food to compliment it, which is how I drink most “great” wnes…tasting alone can be a different experience.
FWIW
The wine needs 40 years to open up? Ok – but the times when people buy bottles for their children and can drink from their grandfathers cellar are long gone. And BTW – what kind of concept is this to produce a wine in a ripe vintage like 1990 that tasted in the first 20 years like coming from a year in need of chaptalisation because the structure is overwhelming? I don’t understand it.
Hi Jürgen,
Taking a long time to blossom completely is just the nature of the terroir of Bonnes-Mares and if one really wants to experience the magic of the wine, then one has to let it age. If it needs forty years (which is actually a bit longer than necessary in most vintages), then it should have forty years, no? What would you do in Christophe’s place? Would you want him to try and artificially tame the terroir to make it more accessible earlier, perhaps through the use of roto-fermenters, micro-oxygenation, spinning cones or the like? Or would you prefer him to just understand the style of the terroir and make the finest example that he can of the wine that champions the natural sturdiness of the vineyard, rather than tries to work around it? It is a philosophical question that could equally be applied to Ch. Latour, Monfortino or Mayacamas cabernet, amongst dozens and dozens of other red wines. Some terroirs just produce very long-lived wines and to benefit from that amazing longevity, one has to be patient at the outset. Certainly, it would be easier if our grandparents or parents had laid in cases of Roumier Bonnes-Mares for us to drink in due course, but as you note, those possibilities were only open to a select few back in the day and are probably impossible with today’s pricing. But, that remains a separate issue from whether or not you would prefer Roumier Bonnes-Mares to be the quintessential expression of its underlying terroir (which it is to my palate) or if you want it to be some sort of hybrid that stresses the needs of the market over the natural character of the wine.
I have been fortunate in my life to drink a lot of Roumier Bonnes-Mares (back to the 1928), and I have routinely drunk it through each stage of its evolution in bottle. I should note that if one is trying to drink the wine young, then it emphatically needs to be decanted for a while ahead of serving, as it needs oxygen to start to show a bit if it is too young for primetime diinking. I drank plenty of the 1990 in its first 
of youth (well more than a case over its first ten years, as I had it in depth, as did my wine-drinking friends, so it was a frequently shared bottle) and the wine was exuberant in its fruit component and its ripe tannins were buried down deep. It did shut down around age twelve or so, but never to the point of seeming anemic in fruit and I would guess your bottle was not 100% pristine. Its issue over its second decade in bottle was more one of pruniness to its thick fruit, rather than a paucity. Like many of the very best 1990s, the wines were most generous and beautiful over that first decade in the bottle,and then started to show signs of sur maturite in varying degrees from that point to today, and one’s affection for the vintage is more about how one feels about overripe aromatics and flavors in red Burgundy. Each has a different tolerance or appreciation for such and one’s affection for the 1990 red Burgundies (at least through this point in their evolution) is intrinsically tied up in this question. But, that is a vintage issue, not a Roumier Bonnes-Mares issue.
Someone above queried whether the style of Christophe’s wines have changed in more recent vintages and the answer is “yes”, to a certain degree. Starting in the 2003 vintage, he stopped using extraction enzymes for his wines, which he had used since his earliest vintages. This has given the younger wines (including the Bonnes-Mares) a bit more of a sense of early accessibility, while not changing the fundamental underlying structures of the wines. They just seem prettier out of the blocks now, and this is true for every one of his red wines. But the overall philosophy chez Roumier of producing true “vins de gardes” that champion their underlying terroir remains the same as in Christophe’s first vintage of 1983, and my gut instinct is that the wines do not start to truly drink with generosity any sooner today than they did back in the 1980s or 1990s; the structural chassis is just more politely presented today without the use of extraction enzymes, so their adolescent phase is less forbidding. But, to look to find the magic of Christophe’s Bonnes-Mares in the first couple of decades out from the vintage is still not likely to be a fruitful course. This is particularly true in what we would call “great vintages”. The vintages of Christophe Roumier’s Bonnes-Mares I find most satisfying to drink right now are the 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1992, 2000, 2001 and 2002. If one is hankering for a young vintage to try, the 2007 is a good option. Jayson, do not touch that bottle of 1993 for another decade! The same can be said for other top Roumier vintages of the 1990s, as the '95, '96, '98 and '99 are all still too young. But, they will all get to a beautiful zenith in the fullness of time.
I have not read Neal’s piece on the tasting, so I cannot comment on his impressions of each vintage that he had (nor was I there to have some sense of how pristine the examples were), but I have happily drunk many vintages of Roumier Bonnes-Mares at its apogee and they were unequivocally great wines and certainly at the level of the Rousseau family’s Chambertin and Clos de Beze at similar ages. They take longer to blossom than the Rousseau top two, but when they are truly ready, they are just different from Chambertin or Clos de Beze, rather than better or worse. But, this is the beauty of Burgundy and its myriad of great terroirs, as one can find bottlings that come forward sooner to satisfy even the pickiest of palates, and this allows us to let our bottles of Bonnes-Mares continue their extended hibernation until they are truly ready to stir. When they awake, they are more than worth the time invested in patience.
All the Best,
John
Gee I wonder why?
…
John,
thank you very much for your thoughtful answer packed with interesting details. I am certainly convinced that some wines need cellaring and shouldn’t be opened too early. If its Burgundy, Bordeaux, Barolo or whatever. And it’s certainly true that some vintages need extended cellaring by nature. 1986 Bordeaux and 1999 Burgundy come to mind or 1988 Bordeaux and Burgundy. And I am convinced also that terroirs are different. But especially 1990 is definitely not a vintage that needed a very long cellaring time by nature.
I had a different feeling when tasting the 1990 Roumier BM. I thought the winemaker was in fear to produce a hedonistic wine instead of a Vin de Garde. And due to this he picked fruit without phenolic ripeness. He forced the vintage to fit into a certain model.
I am aware that Bonnes Mares isn’t Chambolle Musigny. It would be interesting to see if the 2009 Bonnes Mares from Roumier shows the same character as the 1990. Unfortunately I hadn’t the opportunity to taste that wine so far. But I guess I would like the 2009 more due to improved experience on the side of the winemaker.
My very best
Jürgen
I think the argument is though that bonnes mares doesn’t have the high scores initially or over time of these great wines you describe. I don’t have the experience at all but if I look at CellarTracker and have the experience this about a fuller burgundy maybe this is a grand cru that is only because the terroir produced big wines when the climate was more challenging.
Have had the 01’ Roumier twice this year and both times it was about as closed as a wine could be. Decanting would’ve helped, though I followed one of the bottles for over six hours and it was virtually unmoved. I’m a believer that decade three is kinder than the 2nd.
Very interesting. I managed to buy a single bottle of Bonnes Mares 2011 and 2012. Are they any good? drinking window?
Well, that’s really a question for Neal, not for John. I haven’t looked at his piece yet, but I’m guessing the notes themselves were pretty positive; I wouldn’t fixate unduly on the numbers.
Having tasted Roumier’s 2015 blind last week, I can say that Bonnes Mares is doing just fine in the warmer vintages of the present era.
Thanks for this lovely and insightful appreciation of this storied wine John! Makes me want to open a bottle.