1996 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru

"Two weeks before the 1997 harvest, the juice was ripe but the skins tasted vegetal," reports Mugnier, adding that the acids were already low. "We decided to pick late, and ended up with the highest sugars ever measured at the domain" (one cuvee of Chambolle Amoureuses was 13.7% after fermentation without chaptalization). He concludes: "1997 is the opposite of '96: the wines will be drunk early with great pleasure." Mugnier enologist wanted him to acidify his musts, but Mugnier took this approach only with a couple barrels of Chambolle Fuees and did not like the results. Some of the malos finished extremely early, in vat, but the wines were kept on their lees until the first racking, after the 1998 harvest. Mugnier told me he wasn't too sure of the concentration level of his '96s at the beginning, but that the wines are rich and fresh now. I found them clearly superior to the estate '95s. (A Becky Wasserman selection; importers include Martin Scott Wines, Ltd., Lake Success, NY; Glazers Wholesale, Dallas, TX; Esquin Imports, San Francisco, CA)

Freddy Mugnier benefitted from late picking in 1996, and has made a set of nicely balanced wines that should give pleasure early and late. The wines are rich in material, and combine high sugars and high acids. Mugnier describes his '95s as more fragile wines, but with harmonious acidity. "They may be very good, but people will have to catch them at the right time," he says. "And considering that most people will just have a few bottles of a given wine, that may be difficult to do," he adds. 1995 was a tiny crop here, yielding just 30 barrels of wine, compared to 80 in '96. Mugnier has now replanted the majority of his Bonnes-Mares, which featured "a generally bad selection massale " in the late '50s and early '60s. The '95 was the first vintage that included the new younger vines. (A Becky Wasserman selection; importers include Martin-Scott Wines, Ltd., Lake Success, NY; Glazers Wholesale, Dallas, TX; Esquin Imports, San Francisco, CA)