Domaine Bernard Bonin

The queen of Meursault: Veronique Bonin Her love for nature and her hedonistic wines

Veronique Bonin comes from a historical family of Meursault as her grandfather was the famous Bernard Michelot; one of the inventors of the world-famous event Paulée de Meursault. Veronique Bonin inherited a share of her grandfather’s vineyard patrimony and cellar, amongst the very best Terroirs of Meursault plus two little plots of Premiers Crus in Puligny-Montrachet.

In 1999, Veronique and her husband Nicolas Bernard started to produce their first vintage. They manage 7 hectares of vineyards in the most natural way by applying biodynamic principles with no usage of chemicals at all, no yeasts, nor chaptalisation (addition of sugar in fermentation), no enzymes or fining or filtration, which is extremely rare in the world of wine.

Their intention is to follow a time-honoured tradition and ensure that the wines displayed a quintessential concentration of each Terroir. Each cuvée is produced to a maximum of a couple of thousands bottles each. Very limited indeed.

When pressing the grapes, the gentlest pressure is used in order to obtain the purest and richest juice. Furthermore, throughout fermenting and ageing they use oak barrels, and each individual barrel is sampled to determine precisely when the lees are ready to be stirred to attain an optimum exchange between the wine and its sediment. After 18 months of elevage, the wine is separated for the first time from the lees. In addition, racking is synchronised with the lunar phases when the wine is naturally limpid and stable thus avoiding fining and filtration. The wine can therefore mature calmly and unhurriedly in the bottle on the micro sediment that will develop naturally.

Bernard-Bonin’s Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet are amongst the most sought after white Burgundy wines on the worldwide market. They have become iconic amongst collectors. A must try before getting addicted to the uniqueness of Bernard-Bonin’s style.