As we have just recieved some new wines from the eccentric Henri Bonneau I thought it might be worth sharing some thoughts about this most exciting of producers.

Now 68, Henri Bonneau has been consistantly turning out some of the finest Grenache-based wines the world has ever seen since his first vintage in 1953. Twinkly of eye and filthy of mouth, his wines are made with love, individuality and passion.

Whilst the Bordelais are vying with each other to see who can construct the slickest monuments to wine and ahem..commerce, Bonneau is stumbling around a dark, mould encrusted cellar of quite horrific proportions. No Gehry designed glass walkways or Bacon triptychs on the walls, rather a continual quest to avoid falling into one of the twenty metre chasms that puncture the floors of his grotto.

From this inauspicious location however, wines of unbelievable extraction, fruit, strucure and elegance emerge, from years and years in old oak casks. Bonneau is a staunch believer in Grenache and rarely vinifies anything esle

Bonneau has 5 levels of wine, each made as a barrel selection up to ten years after vintage. In ascending price order these are, Les Rouliers, a vin de Table, a straight Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Cuvee’s Marie Beaurrier, Celestins and a rare Cuvee Special, last seen in 1990.

We should enjoy the wines and the personality of Henri while we can, as characters like this in the world of wine are all too few.