Chateau Bonnet

The young winemaker, Julien, is Paul's age, and for the first time they did not meet in wine school. They met over another passion, drumming! After a while, Julien left his drumsticks to work on his family estate in Beaujoais. We are offering their Gamay as a great contrast to Paul's from Burgundy. While the Macon-Pierreclos is spicy and intense, this wine is much more fruity, like an open jar of raspberries. This is a Cru Chenas, one of the ten Beaujolais crus. The estate is organic and the people are amazing!

Château Bonnet was founded in 1630, when Sieur Bonnet, Alderman of the city of Macon bought a hunting lodge and planted the first vines.


The Perrachon family, from a line of winegrowers from the neighboring village, Juliénas, acquired the premises in 1973. Pierre Perrachon restored the castle, enlarges the vineyard and produces Juliénas, Chénas and Moulin-à-vent until his son, Pierre-Yves, joined him on the farm in 1986. At the retirement of his father, in 2004, Pierre-Yves continued the adventure and bought a few acres in Saint Amour.

As the profession of winegrower is a profession of passion that crosses the generations, it is today with his daughter Charlotte (oenologist), that Pierre-Yves directs the field.

Every year 60,000 bottles are produced in the different appellations harvested and vinified at Château Bonnet: Juliénas, Moulin - à - Vent, Chénas, Saint - Amour, Beaujolais - Blanc, Beaujolais - Rosé, Beaujolais - Villages, Crémant de Bourgogne and Burgundy Gamay.  Wines are aged 10 to 12 months in our cellars, some wines, 8 to 12 months in 228L large format barrels.

For many years, our vines have been cultivated in a reasoned culture, all the works carried out take into account certain quality criteria: less toxic treatments, shredding of vines on the ground in order to limit the use of weed killers and the erosion phenomenon ; non-chemical fertilizer inputs, mainly organic. The vines are plowed or "scratched" regularly. Some plots have flowering strips between rows, attracting insects that devour pests.

But to go even further in our commitment, since 2013 we have followed the Terra Vitis charter for all our wine and winemaking projects.

Terra Vitis, expresses in Latin the close and indissociable link between the vine and the soil. The Terra Vitis approach is unique in France: all the work from the vineyard to the bottle is certified each year by an independent organization. So we are proud to put this mark on our bottles, a guarantee of our respect for the environment, the well-being of all and our responsibility for the use of our heritage; the vines.

Beaujolais is one of the few vineyards in the world where the harvest is still done exclusively by hand picking. 

The macerations last between 6 and 21 days, it is during this phase that our wines are filled with color, tannins and aromas. The richness of the winemaking profession lies in the fact that there is no single recipe, every vintage, we question our know-how, we must adapt to fruits (grapes) to develop great wines.

 After pressing, the wine slowly finishes its fermentations in storage tanks or in pieces (225 liter oak barrels).