The nose offers pears and tropical fruits, with a touch of vanilla and buttercream. Flavors of tropical fruit and quince are rounded and creamy in texture with moderate acidity and minerality. This is a layered wine, so each sip reveals something new. Medium in body and length.

 

 

Burgundy starts with the highly regarded Côte d’Or in the north, with its steep escarpments and limestone soils, proceeds southward to the Côte Chalonnaise and the Mâconnais, the latter with rolling hills and less limestone. In the north, near the town of Mâcon, lies Viré-Clessé, a white wine appellation created in 1998 from four communes (Viré, Clessé, Laizé, and Montbellet). It is a somewhat controversial AOC, since its rules expressly prohibit the presence of any residual sugar in its wines.

 

 

Pascal Bonhomme started his estate in 2001 with 2.5 hectares of vines; today the estate has 6 ha, including some of the finest sites in the region. Like vignerons in the Côte d’Or, he harvests entirely by hand and uses gentle pneumatic pressing. 

 

 

Grapes for this wine average 35 years of age. The must ferments in stainless steel; the wine goes through full malolactic fermentation and ages on the fine lees. It is bottled after light filtration. Until recently, Bonhomme’s production was sold only at the winery; today, it is exported to the US by Weygandt-Metzler.