Shows stoic and reserved style; needs plenty more time to unshackle from firm tannins and build upon brooding, earthy characters.

Mint, concentrated red and black fruits, smoked meat, and black pepper pungently scent the De Vogue 2006 Bonnes Mares. These migrate with almost implosive intensity to a palate lushly textured though finely tannic and almost implacably dense yet shot through with electric energy. Here are both the caressing and invigorating aspects at once present in so many of the best 2006s, each accentuated. Like so many young wines of its appellation, this is relatively backward and slightly unruly, but the longer the wine takes on air the more both its senses of richness and energy are enhanced. (DS)

The 2006 Bonnes-Mares shares the same elegance and floral charm of the other Comte de Vogüé wines in this vintage, but of course cut in the broader-shouldered style of Bonnes-Mares. The de Vogüé vines in Bonnes-Mares are in the southeastern section of the vineyard, and are primarily planted on terres rouges, which makes for a richer and sappier version of this grand cru. The nose on the 2006 delivers a fine, sappy mélange of black cherries, a touch of blueberry, red plum, a fine base of soil, some vanillin oak, fresh nutmeg and a floral tone that Monsieur Millet describes as redolent of peonies. On the palate the wine is fullish, poised and very elegant for this cru chez de Vogüé, with sound acids, moderate tannins and a long, complex and impressive finish. Really a lovely showing, and perhaps my favorite example of Comte de Vogüé Bonnes-Mares in many vintages.