One of the wines of the vintage, the 2007 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru has shut down considerably in the last few years, and it's clear that this is one of the few 2007 red Burgundies truly built from the long haul. The wine unfurls in the glass with a youthfully reserved bouquet of red and black cherries, peony, orange zest and woodsmoke that's far less extroverted and explosive than it was only four years ago. On the palate, it's full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with a tight-knit core, fine-grained structuring tannins and a long, stony finish. At this stage, the 2006 rendition is much more approachable, and I'd advise readers who own the 2007 to forget it for the better part of a decade.

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I have had two very different experiences with this wine as the bottled opened in Burgundy seemed awfully ripe for an '07, indeed it was served blind and the '07 vintage never occurred to me as a reasonable possibility. In the same fashion, the flavors seemed ripe and the finish a bit alcoholic and short. As the description confirms, this was a distinctly strange showing. This bottle merited a quizzical 88?/now rating. By contrast, the Hong Kong bottle was not nearly as ripe and offered nicely perfumed if slightly herbal-tinged aromas of both red and dark berry fruit that is trimmed in whiff of spice and earth. There is fine volume and punch to the medium-bodied flavors that are still compact and not particularly complex. I can't say that I was especially impressed with either bottle and particularly not the first though where this wine is headed isn't obvious, at least not at present.

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