Château Bonnet
A Beaujolais vineyard synonymous with family history, passion
Château Bonnet is a family property, located in Beaujolais, whose roots go back to the 17th century. The property was founded in 1630, as a hunting lodge, by Claude Bonnet who was then Alderman to the city of Mâcon and a wine merchant.
In 1973, the Perrachon family, who had been winemakers from father to son for many years, bought the property. In 1986 he was joined by his son Pierre-Yves who began many renovations, both in the vineyard and in the cellars. In 2004 he enlarged the range of wines by buying vines in AOC Saint-Amour. In 2015, after vinification in different parts of the world, his daughter Charlotte Perrachon, an oenologist, joined him on the property to work there.
Today the property produces around 60,000 bottles a year divided into eleven different vintages: Juliénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Saint-Amour, Chenas, Beaujolais Villages, Beaujolais Rosé, Beaujolais Blanc, Bourgogne Gamay, Crémant de Bourgogne, the “Confidence de l’Echevin” vintage and the cuvée 1047.
What makes your terroirs so special?
“We cultivate 20 ha of vineyards spread over 5 different appellations: Chénas, Juliénas, Saint-Amour, Moulin à Vent and Beaujolais Villages (red and white). We have very different soils on each of the wines; with a dominant terroir of granite and foothills, but the common denominator of all our vineyards is that they have been in our family for several generations (at least 5!). ”
What, in blind tasting allows to recognize your wines?
“It’s a very very hard question! It’s hard to say that, but in any case this is what I want, and what dictates my actions in vinification: keep the freshness of Gamay’s fresh grapes on the nose and in the mouth, fruity and complex wines, Balanced wines with ‘straight’ tannins. ”
Do you have projects?
“Too much … lol! I have in mind to work our soils even more, to promote the biological activity and to obtain more complex wines / to reduce the vines to the inputs as they are / in the cellar I wish to acquire tanks of wine making and breeding of small capacities to vinify my wines by terroirs / development of our export sales / development of our domain at the wine tourism level. ”
Do you have an anecdote?
“I was 14 years old in the summer of 2003, my parents had booked 10 days of vacation with my cousins around August 10, the day before we left I told my father that I did not want to leave because we had to harvest …. we still left … and returned 4 days later on 1 phone call alarmed my grandfather, we began the harvest on August 16. ”
Why did you choose to work in the world of wine?
“This choice was made obviously, naturally … When making a choice of orientation after high school, I looked for what I would like … forest ranger ? No. Then one meeting with a guidance counselor made me open my eyes…what I wanted to do was in front of me. I think I was just afraid to announce it to my family. ”
Could you please define your passion for wine in 3 or 4 adjectives?
“I would say insatiable, family and alive. ‘Live’ in the sense that we work with the seasons, that our work changes depending on the stage of vegetation … and each year must have a different approach. ”
Thank you to the Perrachon family for the friendly hospitality.
Choukroun Chicheportiche Jonathan
Château Bonnet
2 Les Paquelets,
71570 La Chapelle-de-Guinchay
+33(0)3 85 36 70 41
www.chateau-bonnet.fr
