Domaine Denis Mortet Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru 2019 0,75L

ROBERT PARKER ” The 2019 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru wafts from the glass with aromas of raspberries, plums and pomegranate, mingled with hints of peonies, warm spices, orange rind and coniferous forest floor. Full-bodied, ample and perfumed, it’s supple and enveloping, with a fleshy core of fruit, melting tannins and a long, saline, rose-inflected finish. ”

Arnaud Mortet, it must be said, doesn’t number among Burgundy’s most alacritous correspondents. So, when my request to visit last year went unanswered, I didn’t take it personally. This year, we caught up on some bottled 2019s and barrel samples of 2020s, while Arnaud recovered from the arduous La Paulée de Meursault the day before. Everything seems to be in place at this address: thoughtful viticulture, with cultivated soils, high hedging (at 1.5 meters, the limit more or less of an over-row tractor) and thoughtful rather than systematic deleafing, followed by winemaking that increasingly emphasizes manually processed grapes, with the rachis of each cluster cut out by hand, leaving berries on their pedicels intact. In the cellar, François Frères is ceding ground to Cavin, but without any concomitant shift in style in the direction of the overtly meretricious. In profile, the wines are supple and perfumed, with plenty of depth and flesh at the core, without any structural asperity. They’re wines that could be drunk young—as no doubt they are drunk by many consumers today—but which will age with grace too. In short, Mortet is at the top of his game today and settled into his contemporary style, and everything reviewed here comes recommended.