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99 JG. "Henri Bonneau believes that the 1989 Réserve de Célestins is among the top two or three wines he has ever produced, and it is indeed a profound bottle of wine, with the intensity, breed and finesse that only the greatest wines of the last fifty years share. It is clearly the greatest bottle of young Bonneau wine that I have ever had the pleasure to taste. The bouquet is deep and brilliantly profound in its purity and complexity, as it soars from the glass in a blaze of black cherries, gravelly soil tones, heather, balsam boughs, gamebirds, orange zest, woodsmoke and a potpourri of Châteauneuf spice tones. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, strikingly pure and firmly grounded in its stony soil tones, with a rock solid core of pristine fruit, ripe, well-integrated tannins, bright, tangy acidity (!) and stunning length and grip on the laser-like, complex and flawless finish. As the wine closes in on its twentieth birthday it is beginning to develop some tertiary layers of complexity on both the nose and palate, and is drinking beautifully. However, it has many, many more years to go, and there is no reason to rush consuming this great wine." View From the Cellar, Nov/Dec 2008, Issue #18 |