Reviews & Scores
This is very deeply colored, in fact so much so that it would make a young port blush! The ripe aromas of red and blue berries, spice and earth display a mentholated top note. The dense, powerful and mouth coating broad-shouldered flavors possess evident muscularity while delivering excellent length on the youthfully austere finale. This isn't refined, indeed it's borderline rustic, but it's a dramatically impressive and very firmly structured wine that should live for decades. - BH
BH95January 2021
The mid-1990s was not my favorite era at Comte de Vogüé, as the wines were a bit more extracted in these days than they are today. However, despite this very obvious style in evidence in the 1996 Bonnes-Mares, the wine showed very nicely at our tasting. The bouquet is open and quite attractive, wafting from the glass in a mix of plums, pomegranate, venison, dark soil tones, woodsmoke and vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and still fairly structured, with a fine core of fruit, good soil signature, ripe, well-integrated tannins and fine focus and grip on the long and complex finish. This needs more bottle age to allow the tannins to soften up a bit more, but the wine is going to be very good when it is fully blossomed. - JG
JG93October 2018
I loved this medium-to-dark ruby-colored wine. Earthy aromas of stones, minerals, blood, and blueberries can be found in this medium-to-full-bodied, tightly wound, sensual, and seductive wine. Seemingly unending layers of black raspberries, cherries, wild blueberries, tangy red currants, and fresh herbs can be found in this complex, rich, silky-textured, and profound wine. Its sublime finish, which provides the taster with yet another opportunity to witness this offering's gorgeous purity of fruit, has a firm yet supple backbone. An extraordinary Bonnes Mares! (PR) - WA
WA95