Wines

With their flagship Blanc de Blancs, Bonville aims for a blend of finesse, precision, and the regal breadth Chardonnay in these great sites can achieve. In that spirit, the vineyard sources, proportions of reserve wines, and dosage levels can change from year to year. Our current bottling blends 70% from the 2020 harvest with 30% from the 2019 harvest, from various holdings in the grand crus Avize and Oger; it was disgorged after two years of lees aging and given a dosage—determined through blind tasting trials—of 8.3 grams per liter. Reading much drier on the palate than the dosage might suggest, this offers pretty notes of white flowers atop ample but refined fruit and an underlying impression of gunflint.

As with their flagship Blanc de Blancs, Bonville’s Grand Cru cuvée “Unisson” (“unison”) can vary from year to year in vineyard sources, reserve wines, and dosage levels, but their aim here is a more complex and mineral-dominated character than the flagship—a profile enhanced by spending more time on the lees before disgorgement. This release comes entirely from holdings in the grand cru Avize, from roughly equal proportions of the 2017 and 2016 harvests, and it was disgorged after nearly five years on the lees with a dosage of 6.7 grams per liter. A salty, authoritative nose introduces a palate of greater depth than that of the flagship, with a clean and stony finish of impressive length.

Although not by rule, Bonville’s vintage bottling nearly always comes from choice holdings in the esteemed grand cru of Avize. Their goal here, whether in a chiseled and lean vintage or a lavishly rich vintage, is to express the particularity—the individuality—of Chardonnay as voiced by the distinctive grand cru terroirs of the Blanc des Blancs. This release was disgorged after six and a half years on the lees with a dosage of 6.7 grams per liter, and it offers a profile of rich yet corseted fruit framed by a deep, nearly savory sense of minerality that is very Avize.

As with the Brut-level Millésime bottling, Bonville’s Extra-Brut typically comes from their top holdings in grand cru Avize, and they release it one year later than the Brut to emphasize its complexity. This release, disgorged after seven years on the lees, was given a dosage of 2.5 grams per liter, and while it is no weightier than the Brut, it offers more finesse, deeper salinity, and a greater sense of cling—a profile enhanced by the driving 2014 vintage.

The crown jewel of Bonville’s holdings is a 0.8-hectare parcel of 1960-planted Chardonnay in “Les Belles Voyes,” a hilltop vineyard in the grand cru Oger situated at the border of the grand cru Le Mesnil sur Oger. This cuvée—Bonville’s only wine which sees oak—spends eight months aging in used barrels before being bottled for its secondary fermentation. The chalk layer at this high point on the hillside is three to four meters deep (compared to around one meter in Avize), and this—along with the texture-enhancing barrel regimen—imparts a strikingly gripping, driving, billowing character to the palate. This release spent nearly eight years on the lees and was given a dosage of 6.7 grams per liter.

Bonville’s superbly balanced Rosé combines 90% Chardonnay from Avize with 10% Pinot Noir from the grand cru of Ambonnay. Vinified entirely in stainless steel, this release blends the 2020 and 2019 vintages, and it spent two years on its lees before being disgorged with a dosage of 6.7 grams per liter. Here, Avize Chardonnay’s distinctly powerful and salty nature is rounded and deepened by the presence of Ambonnay Pinot Noir—one of the greatest and most prized villages for the variety in the entire region.

“Pur Mesnil” hails from three parcels on the lower stretches of the grand cru of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, where Bonville owns 1.5 hectares of vines: Les Zailleux, Le Tilleul, and Les Hautes Mottes. In this hallowed cru, topsoil is nearly nonexistent, as the underlying chalk is found just centimeters below the surface, and wine it yields is chiseled, saline, and bristling with tension. The five years lees aging to which Bonville subjects this cuvée lends a sense of creaminess which nicely offsets the terroir’s tendency toward severity. “Pur Mesnil” is vinified entirely in stainless steel, and undergoes underwent full malolactic fermentation.

Bonville’s “Pur Oger,” from plantings in the Les Noyerots and Les Rumigny vineyards, showcases this cru’s generosity and roundness in comparison to the “Pur Mesnil”—a reflection of the richer topsoil to be found here. Like the “Pur Mesnil,” this spends five full years on its lees after alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in steel. Elegant yet ample, with notes of pit fruits and a classic pastry-like element, it offers spectacular balance and poise on its relatively broad frame.

Bonville’s spectacular “Pur Avize” is sourced from three choice parcels in the heart of their home village: Les Avats, Les Maladries, and Les Chapelles. Combining the saline cut of the “Pur Mesnil” and the richness of the “Pur Oger,” this cuvée adds an undercurrent of flint, making it perhaps the most complex and complete of the trio. Like its brethren, this undergoes alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in steel, and is disgorged after a five-year stint on its lees.