Champagne Bonnaire and its "blanc de blancs" grand cru

Located in Cramant, a village classified 100% Grand Cru and located to the north of the Côte des Blancs where the Chardonnay is king, the Champagne Bonnaire house produces confidential champagnes of great finesse and a recognized quality, Great sommeliers. Champagne blanc de blancs has built the reputation of this family home, which produces only from vines that it owns, so that it has 100% control, with know-how handed down from generation to generation since almost one century.

With 22 hectares of vines, most of them in Chardonnay, the Bonnaires are the most important independent owners of the Grand Cru Cramant. The Blanc de Blancs, champagne made only from chardonnay is their favorite theme.

From the first bottling in 1932, the founder of the future house Bonnaire, Fernand Bouquemont, obtained a Gold Medal at the Concours Général Agricole in Paris. In the aftermath of the Second World War, he was joined by his son-in-law, André Bonnaire. The latter, from a family of winemakers in Champagne for several generations, pays particular attention to the cultivation of vines and the development of vineyards. His son, Jean-Louis, succeeded him and sowed the success of the house.

In the vineyard, a rigorous conduct is conducted. In order to guarantee a good potential for keeping the champagne, the house ensures to harvest the grapes only at good maturity, and ensures the level of natural acidity to produce a perfectly balanced champagne. The harvest stage is crucial and it is here that the famous Bonnaire style is recognized: it is a matter of preserving the integrity of the grapes by a soft and fractionated pressing. Note that unlike many houses of champagne, the Bonnaires do not practice the grape trade. "We are 100% harvesters, we do not buy grapes and what interests us is tillage."

Thanks to the talent of Jean-Louis Bonnaire to vinify, assemble and above all anticipate the evolution of wines in cellars, Champagne Bonnaire has become one of the most representative of the great champagnes of the Côte des Blancs.

In the last years of his life, Jean-Louis took great pleasure in sharing his experience and in advising his two sons, Jean-Etienne and Jean-Emmanuel. The perfect learning for this fourth generation now at the head of the field.

In the various wines, the Chardonnay de Cramant reveals its full potential.