Save Up to 20% On French Wine from our cellar...
PLEASE NOTE: Wines are first come, first served. Once all cases have been claimed, this offer will close.
Exclusive Opportunity:
Reserve Small-Batch, Limited-Production French Wines
(PLUS, customers in good standing receive up to 20% off)
Experience French Wines like never before... A pure terroir expression, from the red pebble soils of Vacqueyras, to Montblanc’s sea breezes, to the limestone hills of Cadillac.
A note from Bonner Private Wine Partnership founder, Will Bonner:
Dear Member in Good Standing,
Last month, we released one of our most potent collections to date to Partnership members… six French wines from some of the most unique "hot weather zones" in the world.
We've been flooded with messages over the past month asking, just when the French Collection will be available for purchase?
Today, we have a limited number of wines from this French collection available.
As a member of the Bonner Private Wine Partnership, you're getting access to this incredible French collection, at a great discount...
You'll receive 10% off your half case of 6 bottles...
PLUS a whopping 20% off your full case of 12 bottles or more!
For our second-ever French collection, we focused on finding the iconoclasts, the upstarts, and the dark horses. Our search led us from the Haut-Médoc, where the Gironde River meets the Atlantic, down through the Rhône Valley, to the Languedoc where white stone villages sit on the Mediterranean coast.
These wines are extremely limited production – so do not wait to reserve your cases.
Simply scroll down to select your wines (available in cases of 6, 12, 18, or 24 bottles).
Oh, and shipping is ON US!
Cheers,
Will Bonner
Your 2022 French Collection Cellar
Clefs des Murailles Vacqueyras | 2018 | Rhône Valley, France
The Winemaking Dynasty’s Rhône Red
Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre
Old Vine
Vacqueyras (Southern Rhône)
In 1854, the Double family acquired the Château de Beaupré, near Aix-en-Provence, where they had previously produced their wine. With the experience gained as part of this well reputed winemakering family, Maxime & Phanette Double (the third generation at the Château de Beaupré) decided to launch their own range of wines.
Outside their small medieval village of Vacqueyras, the ancient limestone mixes with clay and a red pebble topsoil to produce wines that can be a bit of a shotgun blast to the palate, in the manner of a less fussy and more forceful Chateauneuf. What makes Phanette unique is her ability to make Vacqueyras elegant.
That kind of know-how comes only with a deep understanding of the red pebble and limestone clay terroir. The Double’s generational knowledge pays off in this 2018, made by fermenting grenache and mourvedre together, in a traditional manner, while the syrah undergoes carbonic maceration for further extraction of color and flavor. An intense bouquet of wild fruits, strawberry and blueberry in the nose, followed by a graceful, surprisingly well-structured explosion of fruit (plus a hint of licorice?) in the mouth.
Château Vieille Tour Exception | 2018 | Côtes de Bordeaux, France
The Cadillac Red
Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc
Low Intervention
Old Vine
Côtes de Bordeaux (Red Cadillac)
Only 8,000 bottles produced
Côtes de Bordeaux is a franken-appellation. It’s not a contiguous area, but rather a lazy amalgam of four older appellations on the west and east sides of Bordeaux dreamed up in a bureaucrat’s office rather than in the field. This Vieille Tour is really from Cadillac, on the east bank of the Garonne river, opposite Cérons, Barsac, and Sauternes – all sweet wine regions where the white grapes, infected with botrytis, shrivel prematurely, concentrating flavor and sugar before harvest.
Cadillac, too, is a sweet white wine region. But this is not a sweet white. Vieille Tour is a full-bodied red with a ripe plum nose and spicy vanilla and cacao in the mouth. That’s why this 2018 bears the Côtes de Bordeaux, not the Cadillac, appellation.
Not that winemaker Jérome Gouin is terribly concerned with labels. At his core, he’s a farmer. His concern is for his land – a small plot planted around a ruined tower overlooking the Garonne Valley. Visit there during the harvest and you’ll see daughter Lilly-Hanna running the rows, helping as her father and mother harvest each bunch with their own hands, the same manual method used for every other stage of the journey from vine to bottle (Vieille Tour would be organic if Jérome bothered with the Byzantine process of getting a certification).
Marquis de Saint-Estèphe Château Léo de Prades | 2016 | Saint-Estèphe, France
The Saint-Estèphe Gold Medal Winner
Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc
Gold and Silver Medal Winner
Old Vine
Saint-Estèphe (Haut-Médoc, Bordeaux)
North of Bordeaux, close to where the Gironde River meets the Atlantic, a little stream breaks off, bringing water to the hallowed grounds of Château Lafite-Rothschild. On the other side of the stream from Lafite lies the village of St-Estèphe, highest appellation within the Haut-Médoc.
St-Estèphe is an outlier among top tier terroirs: with a top layer of gravel sitting on a bed of pure clay, it has awful drainage. St-Estèphe also lacks the protective barrier of forest enjoyed by most of the Médoc. The result is one of France’s most difficult-yet-rewarding wines.
This 2016 Château Léo de Prades, from vines over 70 years old, had to spend 24 months in oak just to tamp down the tannins before bottling. It is just now coming into its own with a character and depth that seem well beyond its mere 4 years in bottle. Let the bottle decant for a moment, then dive in for tobacco, clove, dark fruit, and toasted coffee beans. That we know of no one else has this wine State-side. Load up while you can.
Domaine Aléofane Crozes Hermitage | 2019 | Northern Rhône, France
The Philosopher’s Syrah
Syrah
Organic, Unfiltered, Low Sulphite
Old Vine
Crozes-Hermitage (Northern Rhône)
In the Northern Rhône, terraced vineyards snake along crumbling granite and slate hillsides, baking in the southern French sun. One such hill, l’Hermitage, produces some of France’s most prestigious wines.
On the northern side of the hill lies the village of Crozes-Hermitage, and a small winery, Domaine Aléofane. The name means “gem of truth” – fitting for a wine made with such a minimal amount of technical intervention. Winemaker/philosopher Natacha Chave does every aspect by hand, refuses to use chemicals, fining or filtration; and opts for “demi-muid” barrels so as not to cloud the wisdom of her 50-year-old syrah vines with unnecessary oak flavor.
The terroir is something special. Covered in galets roulés (smooth, round stones), you might think Natacha’s plots were in Chateauneuf-du-Pape (another ultra-prestigious French region). Indeed, Aléofane is dense and concentrated in a way that makes it an outlier among most Crozes wines.
Maison Ventenac Le Mas | 2015 | Cabardès, France
The King of Cabardès
Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Syrah
Organic, Low Sulphite
Old Vine
Cabardès (Languedoc)
“Ici, pas de maquillage!” says rebel winemaker Olivier Ramé (“no make-up here!”)
We were first introduced to Olivier back in 2019 when Julien Miquel turned us onto his wine, L’Intrus (“the trespasser”) for our first ever French collection. L’Intrus remains one of the most popular wines we’ve ever sourced for the Partnership. “Easily a 90+ point wine if anyone knew about it,” remarked Julien at the time.
A couple years later people are finally beginning to discover Olivier. Le Mas has a 90+ score from none other than Robert Parker. But don’t worry that success has changed Olivier. He still weeds and harvests by hand; he still eschews chemicals and lab grown yeast. (He is even contemplating swapping out his concrete, stainless steel, and oak containers for terracotta amphorae.)
With organic grapes and 18 months in French oak, this limited run wine (1,000 cases only) draws the best out of its limestone terroir for an inky color, a pure minerality, and a powerful, yet balanced, wild fruit expression.
Bruno Andreu Les Prunelles de Montblanc Cuvée Prestige | 2019 | Montblanc, France
The Mediterranean Red
Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre
Organic
Languedoc
Old Vine
On the Mediterranean coast, in the village of Montblanc, stands a white stone church with a tower and a hidden staircase. Back in the 8th century, the tower offered refuge to terrified villagers during Viking raids.
Montblanc gets its name from the white stone, a type of chalk, found throughout the area. That stone, along with a gravel topsoil, is what makes the terroir in this southerly part of Languedoc so desirable to a winemaker like Bruno Andreu. He’s a man who likes typicity – a wine that can come from nowhere else than the terroir where it was born.
With a strong sea influence, and full-sun southern exposure, Bruno’s grapes drink in the French Mediterranean as they grow. He then harvests them at night to preserve peak aromatics – mature black fruit, fresh red berries, and southern spice. When this label says “prestige,” you can believe it. Drink this on a special occasion within the next year and a half.
Can't Decide? Get A Case of All Six
2022 French Collection
For our second-ever French collection, we focused on finding the iconoclasts, the upstarts, and the dark horses. Our search led us from the Haut-Médoc, where the Gironde River meets the Atlantic, down through the Rhône Valley, to the Languedoc where white stone villages sit on the Mediterranean coast.
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About the Bonner Private Wine Partnership
Founded by Will Bonner, the Partnership is a group of wine lovers who come together to import great, small batch wines that might otherwise get overlooked by large importers.
No middle men. No additive-packed supermarket wines. No inflated costs.
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