The WineThis isn't a wine so much as a time machine. My first whiff of its aromas lifted me into a Wizard of Oz-like whirlwind, but instead of taking me to Oz I was taken to 2001 - on a picnic in Amboise in the middle of a hot summer's day on the bank of the Loire river.
On that day, our wine was much like this one, with aromas of cherries and wild strawberries and other red fruits, garden vegetables, and minerals. And, like this wine, it paired so beautifully with an assortment from the Farmer's Market - baguette, fresh goat cheese, carrots and pate - the wine quickly disappeared from our purloined Dixie cups. Fortunately, the low alcohol left us functional for the remainder of the afternoon.
Serve slightly chilled (about 30 min in the fridge or ice chest) and enjoy now through 2023.
The Winery
In 1972, André Bonneau and his wife created Domaine la Bonnelière in the town of Varrains, the epicenter Saumur-Champigny. Today, their two sons - Anthony and Cédric - have increased mom and dad's initial vineyard holdings to 40 hectares (56 acres) and have earned great international respect for their wines.
The family are vocal proponents of biodiversity in their vineyards, incorporating agricultural practices such as hedgerows, intra-row grasses, banning the use of herbicides and chemical products and enabling a diversity of animal life in and around their vineyards.
This wine - the Saumur-Champigny "Tradition" - uses grapes from 20-year-old vines from the estate's vineyards. The chalky limestone and gravel soils warm quickly and drain well, resulting in fully ripe and concentrated Cabernet Franc.
In the cellar, a minority (15%) of the cuvée is cold-macerated for ten days prior to fermenting. The fermented wine then sees 14 days in temperature-controlled, stainless steel tanks. Color extraction is attained as gently as possible by délestage and remontage, the circulation of juice over the skins. The Bonneaus avoid punching down the cap (pigéage) as experience shows this practice extracts bitter and tannic notes from the skins.
From the fermentation period through December, the tanks are regularly given small doses of oxygen to aerate the juice and attain the round, soft and expressively fruity style desired.
The wine is the assembled and lightly filtered before bottling in April of 2019. To learn more about the Loire Valley and this wine, search YouTube for the Dave Chambers channel, then look for Bonneliere.
