1998 Domaine d’Auvenay Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru

Tasting Context

This was a 1990s Leroy theme night, with three red flights built as mini case studies in Lalou Bize-Leroy’s style:

1. 1993 Domaine Leroy Pommard “Les Vignots” vs 1992 Domaine Leroy Volnay “Santenots”

   The Vignots was classic ’93 Pommard: massive structure, dark fruit, and a need for time. It took a couple of hours to shed the walls of its powerful frame and show more detail. The ’92 Santenots felt more open and caressing from the start—sweeter red fruit, more floral, and softer tannins. Two very different expressions of Côte de Beaune: one stern, one charming.

2. 1990 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru “Les Beaux Monts” vs 1999 Domaine Leroy Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru “Les Boudots”

   Beaux Monts was all sexy Vosne perfume: spice, rose, and a seamless, resolved core—luxurious but controlled. The 1999 Boudots, by contrast, came across as more animal and sauvage, almost northern Rhône-like in its meaty, gamey notes, yet still laced with the sexy spice and sweetness of the vineyard’s Vosne-proximity.

3. 1998 Domaine d’Auvenay Bonnes-Mares vs 1996 Clos de la Roche (Leroy)

   In the final flight, the 1996 Clos de la Roche was serious and stony: structured, mineral, and still a bit coiled. But the 1998 d’Auvenay Bonnes-Mares simply took over the table. It had the Leroy perfume turned up to eleven—rose petals, cherry, exotic spice—but with extra verticality, tension, and depth. This was the standout wine of the night.

Vintage Overview – 1998 (Red Burgundy)

1998 in the Côte de Nuits was a tannic, irregular vintage. A warm, sometimes stormy summer and localized hail produced thick skins and firm structures, especially in the north. The best growers, who kept yields low and sorted ruthlessly, made wines with deep color, concentrated fruit, and notable tannic grip that needed time to settle.

By now, the top ’98s are finally in their drinking window: the rustic edges have mostly melted, but the vintage still brings a certain grip and backbone compared to more polished years like 1999 or 2002. In a powerful Grand Cru like Bonnes-Mares—and under Lalou’s ultra-low yield regime—that translates into a wine with serious density and long-haul potential.

Winemaker Profile – Lalou Bize-Leroy, Domaine Leroy & Domaine d’Auvenay

Lalou Bize-Leroy needs no introduction: co-owner and former co-manager of DRC, head of Maison Leroy, and the force behind both Domaine Leroy and Domaine d’Auvenay. Domaine Leroy, founded with vineyard purchases starting in 1988, now holds nearly 23 hectares of some of the most coveted vines in the Côte d’Or, all farmed biodynamically. 

Domaine d’Auvenay is the micro-estate, named after the family farm above Saint-Romain and built from tiny parcels owned or acquired by Lalou and her late husband Marcel. The holdings total only about 4 hectares across roughly eight to fourteen appellations, heavily weighted to whites but with a few jewel-like red Grand Crus, including Bonnes-Mares and Mazis-Chambertin. 

Both domaines share the same core philosophy:

• strict biodynamic farming,

• extremely low yields,

• whole-cluster red fermentations,

• long macerations with gentle but regular pigeage,

• 100% new François Frères oak,

• and 14–18 months’ élevage with no fining or filtration. 

Leroy vs d’Auvenay in Red – Same Mind, Different Expression

Where things diverge is scale and environment.

• Location & cellar climate

  • Domaine Leroy’s winery and cellars are based around Vosne-Romanée, in the heart of the Côte de Nuits, with deep, humid caves and remarkably stable temperatures that foster slow but even élevage. 

  • Domaine d’Auvenay’s winery is up in the hills near Saint-Romain / Auxey-Duresses, roughly 200 meters higher than Vosne. The cellars are noticeably cooler, and fermentations and maturation run on a different rhythm—slower, tighter, and often less immediately expressive in youth. 

• Scale & focus

  • Leroy: ~23 ha, nine grands crus, eight premiers, multiple village bottlings—still microscopic by global standards, but big enough to show a broad range of terroirs each year. 

  • d’Auvenay: ~4 ha total; each cuvée, especially red grands crus like Bonnes-Mares, is effectively a micro-parcel study—hundreds of bottles, not thousands. 

• Stylistic effect

• In the glass, both estates show high color, concentration, and intense perfume, but Leroy’s reds tend to be a touch more immediately opulent and open when young, while d’Auvenay’s reds—shaped by cooler cellars and even smaller cuvées—often feel more vertical, tense, and slow-unfolding, especially in structured vintages like 1998.

The 1998 Bonnes-Mares fit that profile exactly: recognizably “Leroy” in fragrance, but with extra tension and edge that made it feel even more three-dimensional than the Leroys on the table.

Wine Information

• Producer: Domaine d’Auvenay (Lalou Bize-Leroy)

• Wine: Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru

• Vintage: 1998

• Region: Chambolle-Musigny / Morey-Saint-Denis, Côte de Nuits

• Alcohol: ~13%

• Farming: Biodynamic, ultra-low yields, rigorous hand sorting 

• Élevage: Whole-cluster fermentation in wooden vats, 100% new oak (François Frères) for 20 months; no fining or filtration 

•Production: d’Auvenay owns the smallest parcel in Bonnes-Mares; for recent vintages, documented runs are on the order of ~950 bottles (e.g., 951 bottles in 2013), so 1998 is realistically in the sub-1,000 bottle range. 

Vineyard Overview – Bonnes-Mares

Bonnes-Mares is one of the defining grands crus of the Côte de Nuits, straddling the border between Chambolle-Musigny and Morey-Saint-Denis. The vineyard runs from the wall of Clos de Tart in the north down toward the Route des Grands Crus in the east, with about 16.2 hectares in production. 

The terroir is famously bipolar:

• the “white soil” side (more to the Chambolle end) is lighter, chalkier, and gives more floral, high-toned wines;

• the “red soil” side (leaning more toward Morey) is deeper, clay-rich, and produces denser, more muscular expressions.

Domaine d’Auvenay’s holding is tiny—the smallest in the cru—and sits within the Chambolle section, giving a version of Bonnes-Mares that leans more toward perfume, spice, and finesse than brute force, while still retaining the vineyard’s inherent power. In the glass, it often reads like Chambolle’s florality wrapped around Morey’s structure—and in a vintage like 1998, that structural side is very present. 

Tasting Notes – 1998 d’Auvenay Bonnes-Mares

Served in the final flight with 1996 Leroy Clos de la Roche

• Color

  Deep ruby with only the faintest hint of bricking—visibly younger and more saturated than you’d expect for a 1998 at this age.

• Aromatics

  The nose opened with that unmistakable Leroy / d’Auvenay perfume: rose petals, cherry liqueur, exotic spice, and a mix of red and black berries. Underneath the fruit ran notes of dried blackcurrant, incense, sweet earth, and dried flowers. Over time, a cool minty edge appeared. 

• Palate

  Medium-bodied in weight but huge in impact. The wine combined concentrated red and black berry fruit with a very finely etched tannic frame. The mid-palate was layered: cherry, blackcurrant, spice box, and a chalky, almost saline underpinning.

• Finish

  Very long, driven by spice, florals, and mineral rather than sheer fruit sweetness. It finished with a nice grip and a lingering echo of rose, dark berry, and stone.

Overall Impression

Within the context of a 90s Leroy lineup, the 1998 d’Auvenay Bonnes-Mares clearly showed why d’Auvenay exists as a separate estate. It had the Leroy hallmarks—biodynamic concentration, whole-cluster spice, intense color—but the cooler, higher-altitude cellar and micro-scale felt like they added an extra axis of tension and verticality.

Across the night, you could move from the burly 1993 Pommard Vignots to the softer 1992 Santenots, from the sensual 1990 Vosne Beaux-Monts to the sauvage 1999 NSG Boudots—but it was this Bonnes-Mares that sat at the apex: the most pure, most floral, and most cool-fruited wine on the table.

Market Commentary

In today’s market, d’Auvenay Bonnes-Mares produced after the mid-2000s routinely trades north of $10,000 per bottle, with several recent vintages clearing even higher in Asia and private retail channels.

The 1998, however, occupies a different pricing lane. 1998 has never carried the same reputation as the great surrounding vintages (1990, 1993, 1999). As a result, the market still prices 1998 significantly below its later counterparts: where a mid-2000s Bonnes-Mares might sit at $10k–$15k, the 1998 often appears in the $4,000–$6,000 zone depending on provenance. The discount is driven purely by vintage perception, not by scarcity or estate profile; production in 1998 was just as microscopic—likely under 1,000 bottles.

For collectors, this creates a rare arbitrage dynamic.

The Wolf Call: Buy

Buy it to drink—not to speculate. The 1998 d’Auvenay Bonnes-Mares sits in a rare pocket of relative value: production is microscopic, demand is global, but the vintage keeps it priced far below later bottlings that now routinely exceed $10,000. Upside from here is limited, yet the downside is extremely well-protected—there simply isn’t enough of this wine in circulation for prices to fall meaningfully.

If you want to experience Grand Cru red d’Auvenay without stepping into the five-figure era, this is one of the last accessible windows.