Andre Bonhomme Macon-Villages Vieilles Vignes

Domaine Andre Bonhomme was one of the first estates in the Maconnais to attain organic certification. No chemical weed sprays and no insecticides…..they even limit the use of organic sprays so that the plant “learns” to defend itself. All grapes are picked by hand and carefully sorted in the cellars prior to fermentation. Post fermentation, the wine is aged for an 18 months on the fine lees, allowing it to pick up some of the spicy nuance that the spent yeast cells impart. That’s 2 to 3 times as long as most Macon producers age their wines.

After all of that labor, you’d hope this would taste great and I promise you it does. Offering up a pale yellow/greenish hue in the glass, it offers up lovely notes of mixed herbal oils on the nose along with fresh peach, apple, mint and chalky mineral. Rich and concentrated on the palate, it remains fresh and balanced by lemony acidity. Totally drinkable now, the family recommends stashing a few bottles and trying them 5 years from now. Yep, the zingy acidity and intense concentration these 50 year old vines yield allows this one to hold up much longer than almost any Macon Villages I can think of.