2015 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru

Frédéric Magnien, who initially began vinifying with whole clusters several vintages ago in an attempt to mitigate the reductive qualities that his wines had previously shown, began experimenting with egg-shaped 160-liter terracotta "jars" (jarres in French; shaped like stockier amphoras) in 2015, not only to limit reduction but to get more complexity, fruit and transparency to site. (He's also using them extensively at the family estate, Domaine Michel Magnien.) “They breathe more than oak barrels do, and they offer a different way to show and preserve the fruit and the terroir within a vintage,” he told me in November. “The silicic acid in the terracotta kills bacteria, so even though the wines display more fruit early on, they show lower levels of volatile acidity and I’m sure that they won’t evolve more quickly than those aged in barrels.”

Magnien further believes that the egg-like shape of the jarres, which are hand-made by a company in the south of France, is constructive for the circulation of the wine and suspension of the lees. There’s constant slight movement due to the fact that there are no angles in these vessels, which Magnien believes contributes fleshiness and more complex aromas to the wines. And in addition to the very good “thermal inertia” of thejarres, their microporosity (they don’t have a lining) allows for a slow and controlled oxidation of the wine during the aging process.

Magnien vinified his fruit from organically farmed vineyards with an average of 55% whole clusters in 2015--a higher percentage than that for older vines but only 30% for younger. Magnien bottles his négociant wines with very low levels of sulfur: 20 ppm free and just 40 to 45 total.