The 2016 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru is surprisingly discrete and understated on the nose, precise mineral-rich black fruit mixed with orange zest and iodine, gradually opening up with aeration. The palate is well balanced with a sorbet-like freshness on the entry, more red fruit here, cranberry, kirsch, raspberry coulis mixed with hints of fig and white pepper that lead to a spicy but quite strict finish. Tasted at the Domaine.

(30% new oak; production was down by two-thirds owing to the frost): Briary red fruits and black cherry on the nose, along with some subtle spicy oak notes; showing less of this wine's normal blueberry and mineral aromas. Fairly smooth but tight, conveying an impression of slightly green acidity to the complex flavors of medicinal dark cherry, herbs, peony, lilac, licorice and menthol. The most tannic of these 2016s to this point and a bit lacking in give. Finishes with dark fruits and a repeating note of menthol. Hard to assess at this stage of its evolution in barrel.