Domaine Bernard-Bonin, what’s your take?

[CraigT]

Just curious, what’s your take on this producer in Meursault? William Kelley if you could give us an in depth assessment it would be great! I read your review and it intrigued me!

[Maxwell_A]

I had a Bonin Meursault VV 2014 a few years ago that I thought was fantastic. I haven’t seen much of or had any of the wines since. I purchased the bottle for $45 and it seems to have doubled in price since…I’m interested to hear if anyone else here has much experience with the producer. Sounds like they are very much in the “natural” vein, which I did not realize back then.

[William_Kelley]

This is my write up in my latest TWA vintage report:

This was my first visit to one of the Côte de Beaune’s most talked-about addresses, and it was a pleasure tasting with Véronique Bonin and Nicolas Bernard. Beginning with six hectares, inherited by Véronique from the Michelot family of which she is a scion, it has today grown to fully nine hectares, augmented by further cessions from the same source. Practicing organic from the beginning, with Demeter certification due for 2021, treatments are biodynamic. Bernard and Bonin explained that they favor a press cycle of two and a half hours, with a rotation every 15 minutes, with a view to extracting from the skins. The resulting musts go to barrel the next day, without the addition of any sulfur dioxide, and the same barrels are always used for the same appellations (“the wood remembers the imprint of the wine,” Véronique emphasizes). Fermentations are leisurely, with episodic bâtonnages timed by taste, and the wines spend 16-18 months on the lees. Sulfur is only added when the wines are racked to tank (strictly following the lunar calendar—readers will observe that the moon features prominently on the domaine’s label) before bottling, with the domaine targeting some 30 parts per million free sulfur dioxide at bottling. All this has made the estate a darling of the natural wine movement—still something of an epiphenomenon along the Côte d’Or. And some of the cuvées we tasted did display what would, in some quarters, be described as mildly “natty” characteristics: that’s to say, above average levels of volatile acidity and a touch of wild yeast-derived gently reductive funkiness. To reduce this interesting domaine to this small detail alone, however, would be a disservice to their thoughtfully sustainable viticulture and to a range of white Burgundies that actually display a very classical marriage of tangy acidity and chalky dry extract. I much enjoyed this visit—as well as the domaine’s 2018s, cropped at on average 45 hectoliters per hectare, as opposed to the 30-32 that is the rolling average at this address—and look forward to following Domaine Bernard-Bonin over the years to come.

I’ve only visited once and drunk a handful of bottles, so this is more of an overview than anything else. They have my attention, though.

[CraigT]

This is my write up in my latest TWA vintage report:

This was my first visit to one of the Côte de Beaune’s most talked-about addresses, and it was a pleasure tasting with Véronique Bonin and Nicolas Bernard. Beginning with six hectares, inherited by Véronique from the Michelot family of which she is a scion, it has today grown to fully nine hectares, augmented by further cessions from the same source. Practicing organic from the beginning, with Demeter certification due for 2021, treatments are biodynamic. Bernard and Bonin explained that they favor a press cycle of two and a half hours, with a rotation every 15 minutes, with a view to extracting from the skins. The resulting musts go to barrel the next day, without the addition of any sulfur dioxide, and the same barrels are always used for the same appellations (“the wood remembers the imprint of the wine,” Véronique emphasizes). Fermentations are leisurely, with episodic bâtonnages timed by taste, and the wines spend 16-18 months on the lees. Sulfur is only added when the wines are racked to tank (strictly following the lunar calendar—readers will observe that the moon features prominently on the domaine’s label) before bottling, with the domaine targeting some 30 parts per million free sulfur dioxide at bottling. All this has made the estate a darling of the natural wine movement—still something of an epiphenomenon along the Côte d’Or. And some of the cuvées we tasted did display what would, in some quarters, be described as mildly “natty” characteristics: that’s to say, above average levels of volatile acidity and a touch of wild yeast-derived gently reductive funkiness. To reduce this interesting domaine to this small detail alone, however, would be a disservice to their thoughtfully sustainable viticulture and to a range of white Burgundies that actually display a very classical marriage of tangy acidity and chalky dry extract. I much enjoyed this visit—as well as the domaine’s 2018s, cropped at on average 45 hectoliters per hectare, as opposed to the 30-32 that is the rolling average at this address—and look forward to following Domaine Bernard-Bonin over the years to come.

I’ve only visited once and drunk a handful of bottles, so this is more of an overview than anything else. They have my attention, though.

Thanks William! It was a good synopsis. Any chance you could elaborate on the volatile acidity issue? Thanks so much!

[William_Kelley]

This is my write up in my latest TWA vintage report:

This was my first visit to one of the Côte de Beaune’s most talked-about addresses, and it was a pleasure tasting with Véronique Bonin and Nicolas Bernard. Beginning with six hectares, inherited by Véronique from the Michelot family of which she is a scion, it has today grown to fully nine hectares, augmented by further cessions from the same source. Practicing organic from the beginning, with Demeter certification due for 2021, treatments are biodynamic. Bernard and Bonin explained that they favor a press cycle of two and a half hours, with a rotation every 15 minutes, with a view to extracting from the skins. The resulting musts go to barrel the next day, without the addition of any sulfur dioxide, and the same barrels are always used for the same appellations (“the wood remembers the imprint of the wine,” Véronique emphasizes). Fermentations are leisurely, with episodic bâtonnages timed by taste, and the wines spend 16-18 months on the lees. Sulfur is only added when the wines are racked to tank (strictly following the lunar calendar—readers will observe that the moon features prominently on the domaine’s label) before bottling, with the domaine targeting some 30 parts per million free sulfur dioxide at bottling. All this has made the estate a darling of the natural wine movement—still something of an epiphenomenon along the Côte d’Or. And some of the cuvées we tasted did display what would, in some quarters, be described as mildly “natty” characteristics: that’s to say, above average levels of volatile acidity and a touch of wild yeast-derived gently reductive funkiness. To reduce this interesting domaine to this small detail alone, however, would be a disservice to their thoughtfully sustainable viticulture and to a range of white Burgundies that actually display a very classical marriage of tangy acidity and chalky dry extract. I much enjoyed this visit—as well as the domaine’s 2018s, cropped at on average 45 hectoliters per hectare, as opposed to the 30-32 that is the rolling average at this address—and look forward to following Domaine Bernard-Bonin over the years to come.

I’ve only visited once and drunk a handful of bottles, so this is more of an overview than anything else. They have my attention, though.

Thanks William! It was a good synopsis. Any chance you could elaborate on the volatile acidity issue? Thanks so much!

Would say it was an “issue” per say, just a feature of the some of (but by no means all) of the wines I have tasted. All wine has some volatile acidity so it’s a spectrum, not an either or proposition!