Bonnes Mares, Arlaud 2015

Bright dark red. Highly complex, sedate aromas of red berries, licorices, spices and minerals. Wonderfully dense, creamy and deep, offering outstanding concentration and savory minerality. There's no easy sweetness here but there's nothing dry or stressed about this wine--a testament to the vineyard work here in this very warm site that ripens well in cold vintages but can be trickier in hot, dry years. A fine dusting of tannins saturates the entire mouth and front teeth. Not hugely closed but this wine should age for a long time on its density, balance and mineral energy. I don't recall a better previous vintage here for Bonnes-Mares.

Reduction. The dense, structured and powerful big-bodied flavors possess a robust muscularity, indeed this is a borderline massive effort that is absolutely going to require an extended snooze in a cool cellar and it would be pointless to open one of these before at least 10 years of cellaring. In sum, this is most impressive but once again, patience essential.