2012 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru

Fred Magnien, who seems to have been making wine forever but is still only 38 years old, continues to take his wines to ever-higher levels.His choice of picking dates has been more precise in recent years, he has cut back on extraction since the early days, and he does not make excessive use of new oak.(And the bottled wines are also less reduced than they were not many vintages ago.)In fact, he explained, the maximum is one new barrel per wine, even if the cuvee consists of four or five barrels.He uses the same Francois Freres barrels for all of his red Burgundies so that the only variable is terroir.He relies almost entirely on pigeages to keep the cap wet, carrying out two punchdowns per day, and total vatting time was 15 days in 2012, including five days of pre-fermentation cold maceration and very little time on the skins after the end of the fermentation.The cellar had been racked in August and virtually all of the wines had had a very light sulfur addition the week before my visit.An excellent result here in 2012. (A Peter Vezan selection; imported by North Berkeley Imports, www.northberkeleyimports.com and Craft+Estate/The Vintner Group, www.craftandestate.com)