(from a mix of terres rouges and terres blanches but with a bit more of the former) This is perhaps the most reserved wine in the range aromatically and it required aggressive swirling to coax even grudging aromas of red and blue pinot fruit with violet hints that precede ripe, pure and very serious broad-shouldered flavors that possess a beguiling texture and impressive mid-palate concentration that still does not completely buffer the firm, long and chewy finish. This is a big wine that will require plenty of cellar patience.

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($325) Good full red. Pungently high-pitched aromas and flavors of cherry, raspberry, orange peel, fresh herbs, dried rose and pepper; a compellingly complex projection of Bonnes-Mares soil. Then deep, sappy and utterly vibrant, with outstanding inner-mouth perfume contributing to an impression of delicacy. Wonderfully dense yet weightless wine with a firmly tannic, rising finish of great energy and precision. I drained this bottle to the dregs over a 48-hour period and it only got better.

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Bouchard's 2006 Bonnes Mares displays the typically wild character of a youthful wine from its great site. Strikingly and pungently redolent of sassafras, bitter-sweet herbal concentrates, smoke, resin, and lightly-cooked red and black berries, what this might lack in palate refinement it compensates for in energetic interplay and emphatic finishing intensity of berry fruit, smoke, and pungent herbal essences. Look for it to settle down a bit over the next 2-3 years and be worth following for at least 6-8, as both stamina and stable structure seem assured.

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