A Bonner staple since our first visit to San Pablo — now in two vintages
Bonner Private Wines presents
Las Notas de Jean Claude · Bodega Tapiz · San Pablo — Mendoza
A Merlot-led Bordeaux blend from a single vineyard at 4,430 feet in Mendoza’s Uco Valley — crafted by Jean Claude Berrouet, winemaker of Château Pétrus from 1964 to 2007, with his own handwritten tasting notes printed as the label.
From $100 a bottle · two vintages · rated up to 98 points · taxes & shipping calculated at checkout
See the two vintagesSan Pablo estate in winter — our own photograph, August 2022.
44
vintages of Château Pétrus made by Jean Claude Berrouet, 1964–2007
4,430 ft
single estate vineyard in the San Pablo IG, Valle de Uco
400
six-bottle cases made in each vintage — hand-harvested, 18 months in new French oak
98
points from Tim Atkin MW for the 2018 — with 97 from Vinous
Pomerol meets Mendoza
In 1964, a 22-year-old oenologist named Jean Claude Berrouet was hired by Jean-Pierre Moueix, who had just acquired his stake in Château Pétrus. Berrouet went on to make every vintage of Pétrus for the next 44 years — along with Trotanoy and Magdelaine — and helped launch Dominus in Napa. When he retired after the 2007 harvest, his son Olivier took his place.
His peers gave him their own highest honour: the 2018 Winemakers’ Winemaker Award, voted by Master of Wine winemakers and past laureates. His philosophy has never wavered — classic wines of place, not power; finesse over extraction.
Around 2012, Patricia Ortiz — the owner of Bodega Tapiz and a pioneer of the San Pablo IG — brought Berrouet to the Uco Valley. On Las Notas he doesn’t lend a name; he and Tapiz winemaker Fabián Valenzuela own the winemaking outright. Pétrus is, in essence, pure Merlot. Las Notas is Merlot with Cabernet Franc — the same palette, grown where altitude does what the Atlantic does in Pomerol.
« Greatest wines should not be criticized by their body… they should be judged by their soul. »
Fabián Valenzuela · Jean‑Claude Berrouet
Bodega Tapiz · Mendoza / Argentina
The name on the bottle
Las Notas means the notes — and the label is exactly that. Look closely at the ivory paper: those faint lines are Berrouet’s working notes from the cellar, reproduced in his own hand. Fermentation temperatures run down the margin like a logbook; his impressions cross the page in cursive French; the verdict is underlined at the bottom. The vintage is inked in red, the way he annotates a page worth keeping 2018 .
Almost no wine shows you its own paperwork. This one is named after it. On the shelf it reads as restraint — ivory paper, a red capsule, small gold caps for the estate. In the hand it reads as proof: the man who made Pétrus, showing his work.
San Pablo, Valle de Uco
The Tapiz estate sits in the San Pablo IG at the foothills of the Andes, with some of the highest vineyards in Mendoza — up to 4,600 feet. Under owner Patricia Ortiz, Tapiz helped develop San Pablo into one of Argentina’s most respected appellations, farming 100% sustainably and harvesting by hand. Wine & Spirits has named Tapiz a Top 100 winery.
Las Notas comes from a single estate vineyard at 4,430 feet: cold nights, fierce light, and stony soils that give Merlot the freshness and structure it finds in Pomerol’s clay. The wine ferments in stainless steel and rests 18 months in new French oak — 400 cases a vintage.
“Take note — this is a winery to follow.”
— Sommelier Journal
We visited San Pablo in the winter of 2022 — crossed the estate on horseback below the snowline, walked the barrel hall, and tasted the 2018 in a room with the Andes filling every window. Las Notas was the standout of the day, and Tapiz has been a Bonner staple ever since: Retrato and Selección de Barricas have moved through our cellar whenever we could get an allocation. This page is the first time we’ve offered two vintages of the wine that started it, side by side.
Bonner Private Wines
From our visit — August 2022
The kickoff — two vintages
Every Las Notas we’ve carried has sold through — the 2013 and 2014 are long gone. The 2018 is the vintage the critics crowned, now down to the last bottles of our allocation. The 2020 is the new arrival: the widest critical consensus in the wine’s history, and the only vintage where a drop of Mendoza’s own Malbec slips into Berrouet’s blend. Mix them freely.
Last of our allocation
2018
Sold out
The pinnacle vintage — dark, complete, built on the old Pétrus palette of Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
$100
$125
per bottle
New release!
2020
Sold out
The freshest expression yet — and the only vintage where Mendoza’s own grape joins the blend.
$100
$125
per bottle
Orders are a 3-bottle minimum — mix the two vintages however you like. Prices shown are current; your exact total is confirmed at checkout.
| 2018 — the pinnacle | 2020 — the kickoff | |
|---|---|---|
| Blend | 69% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Petit Verdot | 76% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6.5% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot, 2.5% Malbec |
| Character | Riper, darker, most concentrated — 15.3% alc. | Fresher, most Pomerol-proportioned — 14.8% alc. |
| The critics | 98 Tim Atkin · 97 Vinous · 95 + Top 100, James Suckling | 96 + Top 100, James Suckling · 96 Tim Atkin · 95 Vinous · 95 Wine Enthusiast · 94 Wine Advocate |
| In common | One estate vineyard at 4,430 ft, San Pablo IG · hand-harvested, 100% sustainably farmed · 18 months in new French oak · 400 six-bottle cases | |
Your order
Pick your bottles above, or choose them right at the checkout below — the 2018 while it lasts, the 2020 as it arrives.
Choose your bottlesStandard Ground shipping with ice packs when the weather calls for them; in extreme heat we may hold shipment briefly to protect the wine. 3-bottle minimum. Taxes & shipping calculated at checkout.
Four hundred cases a year, one vineyard in the Andes, and the notes of the man who made Pétrus — on the bottle, and in it.
Choose your bottles
Las Notas de Jean Claude · Bodega Tapiz
Four hundred cases were made, and we’re pouring the last of our allocation — alongside the newly arrived 2020. Scroll back up, pick your bottles, and let the notebook speak for itself.
Back to the two vintages
The Bonner Private Wine Partnership is your passport to the world’s most extraordinary small-batch wines—sourced from remote, family-run vineyards across Europe and South America. We deliver handcrafted, additive-free wines you won’t find in stores… and the stories behind them. No middlemen. No mass production. Just real wine, for those who crave something rare.
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