Bonnet-Ponson Cuvée Perpétuelle Champagne Premier Cru Extra Brut Blanc

For more than a century, the Bonnet-Ponson family has been making wines in northwest France, in the A.O.C. Champagne. Now the sixth generation, led by Cyril Bonnet, continues to fight, turning this family winery upside down little by little, continuing to stand out for their high quality sparkling wines.

The first bit change he made was to take a definitive step towards organic cultivation. Although his father Thierry Bonnet and grandfather André Bonnet had already started on this and worked the vineyards with minimal doses of sulphur, Cyril Bonnet has finally and courageously taken a definitive step towards organic, gaining certification for the 10.5 hectares classified as premier cru that are spread across the villages of Chamery, Vrigny, Coulommes-la-Montagne and Verzenay. And his plans don’t stop there; he also plans to install a small solar power plant.

As Lampedusa said in the most famous dialogue of his work The Leopard: “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.” This is the only way, with these changes, that they can guarantee the quality of their classic sparkling wines like Bonnet-Ponson Cuvée Perpétuelle Champagne Premier Cru Extra Brut Blanc. Bonnet-Ponson Cuvée Perpétuelle Champagne Premier Cru Extra Brut Blanc comes from this winery’s Reserva Perpetua (hence the name). In the A.O.C. Champagne, perpetual cuvées are blends that stay in the cellar with vintage wine added every year, achieving a multi-vintage wine (very similar to the criadera and solera system). 40% of this Bonnet-Ponson Cuvée Perpétuelle Champagne Premier Cru Extra Brut Blanc comes from this multi-vintage blend, while the remaining 60% is a vintage wine made from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier.

In the winery, where intervention is also kept to a minimum, fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks and oak barrels (where malolactic fermentation also happens). After this key stage in production, Bonnet-Ponson Cuvée Perpétuelle Champagne Premier Cru Extra Brut Blanc is aged on the lees for 8 months before bottling (without filtration and with a minimal sulphites of 35 mg/L). Finally, Bonnet-Ponson Cuvée Perpétuelle Champagne Premier Cru Extra Brut Blanc rests for 4 years in the bottle before being released for sale.