At the Hinge of Chambolle and Morey
Bonnes-Mares occupies the northern end of the Chambolle-Musigny lands, right at the top of the slope, where the commune meets that of Morey-Saint-Denis. The climat is tiered between 265 and 295 metres in altitude, a drop of some thirty metres, on a gradient that runs from 7% at the bottom to 20% at the top, facing east-south-east. To the north it immediately adjoins the Clos de Tart, whose physiography it shares; to the south begins the garland of premiers crus of Chambolle, Les Fuées, Les Baudes, Les Sentiers.
Its administrative particularity is unique in the Côte de Nuits: 13.54 hectares belong to Chambolle-Musigny and 1.52 hectares to Morey-Saint-Denis, for a total of 15.06 hectares. It is the fifth largest grand cru of the Côte de Nuits by area, behind the Clos de Vougeot, Charmes-Chambertin, the Clos de la Roche and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. The boundaries have in fact moved: in 1965, a parcel of Bonnes-Mares enclosed within the walls of the Clos de Tart was attached to it, settling a cadastral anomaly several centuries old.
The Terroir: White Soils Against Red Soils
The 1:10,000 geological study carried out for the ODG of Chambolle-Musigny in 2013-2014 by the geologist Françoise Vannier put a scientific name to a distinction the growers had always made. About 75% of the climat's area rests on the Bajocian crinoidal limestone — an ochre, massive rock formed of crinoid debris, 50 to 55 metres thick, laid down 172 to 168 million years ago. The soils derived from it are red-brown, clayey-silty, rich in stones of five to ten centimetres and 40 to 60 centimetres deep: these are the famous "terres rouges", concentrated in the lower part of the climat.
In the upper part, by contrast, an oblique band rests on the Marnes à Ostrea acuminata, ten to fifteen metres of a marly formation deposited in a mudflat environment and packed with tiny fossil oyster shells. The soils there are clayey-silty, yellow-brown, very pale, almost stone-free: these are the "terres blanches". A transverse line, following roughly the track that crosses the climat from south to north, divides the two lithologies — and since most parcels stretch from bottom to top, most owners harvest on both soils and blend them. The terres rouges give frame and density, the terres blanches aromatic lift and finesse.
A Bedrock That Explains the Gap with the Musigny
The Vannier study also showed that the Chambolle slope is cut in two by the combe Ambin, a dry valley set along a major transverse fault. That fault shifted the rock compartments on either side, so that the two halves of the commune do not rest on the same strata: crinoidal limestone dominates in the north (Bonnes-Mares, Les Fuées, Les Cras), while the hard, compact Comblanchien limestone forms the framework of the south (Le Musigny, Les Amoureuses, Les Charmes).
The commune's two grands crus, each lying at one end of the slope, therefore sit on two different rocks. This is one of the explanations put forward for the difference in style between the Musigny, whose elegance is proverbial, and Bonnes-Mares, which is more muscular. The subsoil of the sector is moreover intensely fractured: secondary faults cut the substrate into irregular blocks, and the outcropping rock can change within less than a hundred metres — the geologist stresses, indeed, that this tectonic chessboard does not coincide with that of the climats.
Climate and Exposure
Like the whole Côte, Bonnes-Mares has a temperate climate with a slight continental tendency: pronounced winters, wet springs exposed to frost, hot summers punctuated by storms, rainfall spread across the year. The east-south-east exposure captures the morning sun, and the gradient, quite marked at the top of the climat, ensures that the soils dry out quickly after rain — a decisive condition for a pinot noir susceptible to grey rot and downy mildew.
The calendar has shifted markedly over a century. The archives record August harvests in the Côte de Nuits as early as 1422, then a very early 1865 vintage very rich in sugars; it took the heatwave of 2003 to see some estates harvesting again in mid-August, a month ahead. On a terroir where the upper part, marly and cooler, ripens more slowly than the lower part, this shift redeals the cards of the blend from one year to the next.
The Style of the Wines and Their Ageing
The textbook bonnes-mares does not resemble the typical chambolle, all lace. Its robe is intense, the nose mixes violet, stewed red fruit, undergrowth and humus; the palate is sturdily built, full-bodied, rich, almost wild, with a tannic density and a thick texture that earn it its reputation as a "constructed" wine. It is served between 14 and 16°C and calls for furred or feathered game, civets in sauce, glazed poultry and cheeses of character.
This composite portrait deserves qualification, however: some twenty to thirty producers share the climat, with different plant material, parcels and practices, so that the real spectrum of bonnes-mares is wide and also includes elegant, refined wines. The proportion of terres blanches and terres rouges in each estate's blend counts for much. As for ageing, ten to twenty years is a reasonable benchmark, and the great vintages go a good deal further.
History, Ranking and Owners
The name, enigmatic, probably refers to former ponds or to the root designating a damp place — the question is still debated by place-name scholars. The vineyard itself belongs to the long history of the Côte: partial uprootings under Domitian in 92, the annulment of the edict by Probus in 280, expansion by the abbeys from the sixth century, the banning of gamay in favour of pinot noir by Philip the Bold in 1395, then the scourges of the nineteenth century — the vine moth, powdery mildew, downy mildew and phylloxera. The appellation d'origine contrôlée was created in 1936, at the moment when the AOC system championed by Joseph Capus and Baron Le Roy was being put in place.
Fragmentation is real but less extreme than at some neighbours: the survey published by Monocépage, revised in December 2022, listed some twenty estates and houses on the climat, Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé then holding the largest share with about 2.7 hectares, mainly in the lower part. Also listed were Georges Roumier, Drouhin-Laroze, Robert Groffier, Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier, Bruno Clair, Fougeray de Beauclair, Dujac, Louis Jadot, Joseph Drouhin, La Vougeraie, Georges Lignier and Arlaud. Since parcels change hands, this breakdown holds good only for its date.