The champagne house Alexandre Bonnet produces excellent Pinot Noir champagnes and more particularly great 100% Pinot Noir Extra Brut champagnes. Alain Pailley, cellar master at Champagne Alexandre Bonnet since 1985, commented today about the coming harvest: “We are finally reaching the harvesting period. This year required a lot of work on our 103 acres’ estate vineyard located in the southern part of Champagne called Aube. Our Pinot Noir vines, planted around the village called Les Riceys, did not suffer much thanks to all the care we brought. We decided to start harvesting at the end of this week. Both steep limestone hills and clay top soils provided ideal conditions for Pinot Noir grapes and some parcels even offer outstanding results. For example, the grapes from Cote des Forets, a parcel with full southern exposure on a kimmeridgian soil, already reached a potential level of 10.5°. Right now, we can feel the structure and the roundness these grapes will bring to the wines. Our initiatives led for decades on “plot by plot” work and our research based on a better expression of the terroirs both helped us to reach a better quality and maturity. And like every year, we will be very selective with the grapes we will pick as we look for concentration and aromas in our champagnes.”
(You can reach the writer at info@vitabella.fr)
