2014 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru

From the outset, Christophe Roumier described 2014 as a fruit-driven vintage with fairly high pHs but fresh acidity, and moderate tannin levels. He bottled the ‘14s at the end of April, after allowing them to settle in stainless steel tanks for two months. When we tasted the wines in November, he thought they were starting to go into a shell. But he was confident that they wouldn’t close much more and that they should drink well early.

From the outset, Christophe Roumier described 2014 as a fruit-driven vintage with fairly high pHs but fresh acidity, and moderate tannin levels He bottled the ‘14s at the end of April, after allowing them to settle in stainless steel tanks for two months When we tasted the wines in November, he thought they were starting to go into a shell But he was confident that they wouldn’t close much more and that they should drink well early

Favorable late-summer weather made a big difference in 2014, said Christophe Roumier, but a heat wave during the last couple days of August and beginning of September exacerbated the problems with Drosophila suzukii. In the end, crop levels were average by the standards of the last 20 years at about 32 hectoliters per hectare for the estate."The berries were big and had more juice than usual," Roumier noted. He started harvesting on September 16, picking with grape sugars in the 12% range and chaptalizing his wines to a maximum of 13%.

The berries contained a lot of seeds, he went on."They didn't reach 100% phenolic ripeness but they offered easy extractability. We didn't punch down like crazy because there was no reason to make extractive wines in a vintage meant to be easygoing." Roumier vinified most of his 2014s with 25% to 35% whole clusters, but two-thirds for the Musigny."It's a fruit-driven vintage to drink before the 2013s, which are more tannic, structured and concentrated," he told me. The pHs in 2014 are in the fairly high 3. 6 range but one tastes the acidity in the wines, Roumier added."It's not a tannic vintage." The wines finished their malolactic fermentations in July and were racked from barrel to barrel about three weeks prior to my November visit.