Walls: Domaine Bonnefond’s inspiring next generation

The small Suzuki 4×4 came to an abrupt stop and we teetered at the top of a steep path in lieu-dit ‘Les Rochains’, high in the hills of Côte-Rôtie. It had been raining all day and the ground was a slick of slippery brown mud. The Rhône was flowing grey in the valley far below us. Léa Bonnefond flicked a button on the dashboard and the car switched to four-wheel drive. She pushed the accelerator, and down we went.

The cover of my notebook still displays my fingernail marks, but Bonnefond was unconcerned – just another day in the vines for this 26-year-old, who grew up next to the winery in the tiny hamlet of Mornas.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for five vintages of Léa Bonnefond’s stunning wine

Built by brothers

Bonnefond’s father Christophe cleared the trees from this parcel of Les Rochains 35 years ago, then constructed the terraces and planted the vines. The black schist bedrock is visible along one wall, shining like polished marble in the rain.

Another parcel was planted in Les Rochains just above the famous La Landonne vineyard by Christophe’s father, Charles, in 1947. Charles used to sell his fruit to E Guigal, but when Christophe and his brother Patrick took over in 1990, they built a winery and started bottling wines under the Bonnefond name. Now they have 7.5 hectares of prime Côte-Rôtie.

As well as Les Rochains, they also bottle a wine from lieu-dit Côte Rozier. Both are powerful, concentrated expressions, but while the south-facing Les Rochains majors on complexity, the east-facing Côte Rozier has great freshness. The Colline de Couzou cuvée contains fruit from both parcels and from granite vineyards further south.

The brothers’ top Côte-Rôties never fail to impress, but a new Bonnefond cuvée has been repeatedly catching my eye over the past few years: ‘Dans les Vignes de Mon Père’. It’s the wine made by Léa.

Next generation

Léa knew early on that she wanted to join the family winery, but as a woman she encountered resistance. For her grandfather’s generation, winemaking ‘wasn’t a job for girls,’ she says, and to begin with her father wasn’t entirely sure that working in the vines was right for her either. ‘I had to force it a bit,’ she says.

Undeterred, she applied for a degree in winemaking, followed by internships at Domaine Gonon and Stéphane Ogier. She returned to the family estate in 2019.

Was her family right to be concerned? ‘They were worried I might hurt myself most of all… But everything is achievable, all the physical jobs – maybe not for as long as a well-built man, but I can do it all,’ she says assuredly. She works across all areas of the business now, in the winery, the vines and the office.

A triumphant experiment

When she arrived at the winery, naturally she was keen to show off her skills. She was sure that whole-bunch fermentation (instead of destemming) would yield positive results, but this would mean a radical shift in house style. ‘You can’t change everything straight away,’ she says, so she started making her own experimental Côte-Rôtie instead, Dans les Vignes de Mon Père.

Using whole bunches requires ripe stems as well as ripe grapes, so she selected fruit from the south-facing Rochains vineyard. ‘[Using whole bunches] brings freshness, and with the hot years we’ve been having, that really works in our favour… and it helps the wine to age,’ she says.

Her first vintage was 2019, and it was one of the wines of the year – up there with names like M Chapoutier, E Guigal, Domaine de Monteillet and Stéphane Ogier. Not bad for a first attempt. Subsequent vintages have proved that it wasn’t just beginner’s luck.

Taking the reins

Working these rocky slopes is arduous, and winemaking in Côte-Rôtie is still a male-dominated profession. Traditionally women worked in the office in this part of the world, but Léa is one of a growing list of young women taking over the production side in their family estates, a list that includes Emma Vernay, Pauline Villa and Héloïse Finon. The tide is slowly turning.

With her father and uncle now in their mid- and late-50s, it will be Léa who takes over the estate when the time comes. And given that all the domaine’s Côte-Rôties now contain at least 50% whole bunch, clearly the older generation agrees with her new direction. Whether in the winery, or at the wheel of a 4×4, Lea’s is a safe pair of hands.

The Domaine Bonnefond wines are imported and sold through Lea & Sandeman in the UK.

Notes and scores for five vintages of Léa Bonnefond’s exceptional cuvée:

Wines are listed youngest to oldest

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