We’ve gathered Julien’s 6 favorite wines from our 2024 Wine Explorers Club collections into a special collection, available while supplies last! https://bonnerprivatewines.com/product/julien-miquel-favorites-collection/
Transcript:
00:00:00:00 – 00:00:30:13
Hello dear wine connoisseurs, and welcome to your new Bonner Private Wines video. I’m your host, Julien Miquel, Bordeaux trained winemaker and seasoned wine taster. And today I want to give you an opportunity to experience, to taste and stock up on absolutely delicious wines from around the world, from small producers scattered around the globe, bottles that you won’t find anywhere else because they have small volume vinos.
00:00:30:15 – 00:01:00:10
Our whole team here at the Bonner Wine Club, Will Bonner, Diego, Matt, Lucy, myself and everyone else work really hard. All year tasting, reviewing hundreds of different wines from small wineries to bring you the best of the best, the crème de la crème of authentic producers. Every bottle that we send you combines high quality and a genuine character from a special place on Earth.
00:01:00:11 – 00:01:27:05
Among those wines that you receive quarterly. Let me tell you today about the ones that I personally loved above everything else, the ones that I will personally be having over the holidays and have my friends and family enjoy the ones that I will keep also in my cellar in 2025 and beyond. Here are my six favorite wines from our wine club from our 2024 collections.
00:01:27:06 – 00:01:41:23
Let’s go!
00:01:42:00 – 00:02:03:09
If we look back at our wine journey that we shared this year, if you remember, we first went to the high altitude vineyards of Argentina. As is traditional for us to start up the every new year. Then we went to the sunny Spain. We had a rosé and a vermouth this summer, and we finally got to explore the fine wines of France to present my top picks.
00:02:03:11 – 00:02:39:04
Rather than going by country, I figured I’d go by wine styles. So based on your personal preference or your use case for the wines, you can pick what suits you best. So we’re going to go with lighter fruity reds first, the gourmet reds then, which represent this sweet middle ground spot for texture. And finally we’ll talk about the big boys for long aging and super tasty foods.
00:02:39:06 – 00:03:07:12
For every one of our collections, as you know, we try to bring you a variety of wine styles for two reasons one, so you can explore the diversity of the wine world for yourself and experience different approaches from each area that we visit. And secondly, so you have also different wines available for different occasions and food pairings for what I call the fruity and complex reds.
00:03:07:14 – 00:03:35:15
So in a slightly lighter style, we had two wines that really stood out for me. First, from Argentina, the wine called Exploracion from our friend Agustin Lanus and his Sunal Winery. You know how much we love this traditional, typically Argentine grape called criolla chica, because it combines lightness of body and tannins, really quenchable a wine with tons of spices and berry fruits.
00:03:35:15 – 00:04:03:11
And because this one is from such a remote location at the extreme altitude in the Andes Mountains, it has plenty of depth and complexity to be a very, very, very serious wine while also keeping being approachable the perfect combination in that style. My second fruity red was a Pinot noir from the Mediterranean coast of Spain, which is quite unusual.
00:04:03:11 – 00:04:31:14
I was amazed at how from an elevated plateau and thanks to the cooling influence of the nearby sea, this Bassus Pinot Noir was able to deliver big ripe fruit concentration from the sunny Spain, as well as the freshness that we love and expect from Pinot Noir. It somewhat reminded me of an aged Grand Cru from Burgundy, a high end pinot from Bourgogne in France, as we call it.
00:04:31:16 – 00:04:54:13
And that’s always a treat that I couldn’t ignore here. Those two are for all your appetizers, the aperitifs during the holidays, your entrees, the salads, the white meats and even white fish. Delicious.
00:04:54:15 – 00:05:25:02
If we now talk of these gourmet wines, category wines that are rich and opulent, but in a very civilized style. There were so many contenders, I could have landed on many, many other gems. But here are my absolute favorites. First, I must quote the French wine from Beaujolais that we had by a tiny producer, essentially made by one man alone in his vineyards on beautiful hilly landscapes around the center of France.
00:05:25:02 – 00:05:59:02
It’s hard to beat the richness and the balance that very old vines deliver in this way, when grown on an outstanding day, was such a level of concentration of fresh berries with a level of intensity that is so rare, so vibrant and crisp acidity as well explosive berry flavors like like a mixed berry juice, but concentrated tenfold. Herbal characters as well, like fresh herbs, basil, oregano, parsley, an explosive finish as well.
00:05:59:04 – 00:06:24:20
You got the point. Virtually the perfect wine for the style. My second choice is from Argentina and again I fell for a very tiny vineyard, ten acres only cropped by one man in his family, but this time at 9000ft of elevation. Just a pure expression of extreme altitude malbec as we love them. Augmented by about 20% of Syrah and cabernet
00:06:24:20 – 00:06:50:13
franc just to perfect the blend and give it some more depth, super fine dark chocolate flavors that I adore, the meatiness of malbec, toasty flavors of caramel and cocoa or cacao maybe, with the finish that is so smooth and mellow, spicy, bursting with flavors, intense, and overall balance that is nothing short of spectacular. I mean, wow, this was such a beautiful wine.
00:06:50:13 – 00:07:09:12
Also, in this Gourmet wine category though, we had a great Cabernet Franc wines, one from Argentina, the other from France that I absolutely loved. We had some more spicy wines from the south of France. Virtually every French wine that we had, I could have selected here because I adore them, and the Spanish Ribera del Duero, the Rioja,
00:07:09:12 – 00:07:25:15
were not far behind at all. We had all these fantastic selections, but those two were for the gourmet wines my favorites.
00:07:25:17 – 00:07:59:08
And yes, finally, if you need wines for your tastiest dishes, the grilled meats, your favorite steaks or your favorite comfort foods in general? Big wines. Also wines with tons of cellaring potential. You need one of these two. Or maybe both. This Spanish wine called Vetus from a region called Toro in central Spain, which is the warmer area in the country to grow the legendary Tempranillo grape that makes the famous Rioja wines but grown here in hotter conditions.
00:07:59:10 – 00:08:43:10
The result is this big, dense wine. Yet with the finesse and the depth of Tempranillo, the spiciness of the and the richness of Spain, which is punchier than most French or Italian wines, but still with this je ne sais quois or balance and complexity that European wines are so good for. And if you want the biggest wine that we had this year will have to go back to Argentina with our friends Raul Davalos and his bodega Tacuil train Treinte y Tres or 33 by Davalos, a sensational, sensational, intense wine from vineyards just next to Bill Bonner’s ranch at extreme extreme altitude.
00:08:43:10 – 00:09:11:03
Very old vines too, primarily from Malbec, with small proportions of other grapes. Cabernet Sauvignon and bonarda, again to make the perfect blend. It felt like raisin juice in its opening, so rich and right, but still fresh and acidic, with vibrant berry flavors along with immense depth and such long finish, possibly the most complex wine of the year.
00:09:11:03 – 00:09:45:18
If we counted how many different aromas it had and delivered, and its level of concentration incredible. And a wine you can lay down for a very long time in your cellar while still having it over the holidays, because it’s already good to have now, if you feel so inclined. I think I said in my previous videos for both these last two wines that you could drink them between 2024 and 2040, so plenty of years or even decades of enjoyment to have.
00:09:45:20 – 00:10:14:00
Have fun with this selection from the selection. Thank you very much for all your support this year. Enjoy your videos and still plenty of videos for me to come in 2024. To always learn more and more about wine. Drink safe and tasty. See you soon! Cheers!
