Tasted blind, the 2015 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru is more persuasive than the Clos de Bèze, offering up aromas of ripe cherries, licorice, dark chocolate and grilled squab. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with an abundant endowment of fine but firm tannin that tempers what might otherwise be a flamboyantly ripe core of succulent fruit. This is a creditable Bonnes-Mares from Groffier.

The 2014 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru is the same élevage as the les Sentiers, both picked on the same day, with 80% whole bunch fruit and 50% new oak. It has a quintessential Bonnes-Mares bouquet with small dark cherries, red plum, crème de cassis scents billowing from the glass, the oak nicely integrated here. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent black and red fruit, a touch of graphite in the background, very nicely focused with a long and very satisfying, sorbet-fresh finish that lingers long in the mouth. This is a Bonnes-Mares that will inevitably beg to be drunk until it is empty.