Prunier Bonheur

2022 Vintage

New to our list with the 2022 vintage are the delightful wines of Pascal Prunier Bonheur. Situated in Meursault, though farming vines in St Romaine, Auxey-Duresses, and Monthelie, as well as a small amount of Meursault, Pascal is the 5th generation Prunier to run the domaine. Pascal’s approach involves studiously hands off winemaking with studiously hands on farming; indeed the hands say it all – stained and ingrained with the soils that he works. Old vines are a feature of this 8ha domaine, and it is these, given careful husbandry, which allows Pascal’s wines to so regularly punch so far above their appellations. White wine making involves a light crushing prior to a firm pressing, a short debourbage and a lot of lees going to barrel. Reds are predominantly destemmed, with just 10-30% whole bunch for certain cuvees – – so better to allow the terroir to shine. The results are beautifully unadulterated Burgundies that are both characterful yet also precise, speaking clearly of their sites and the wisdom of old vines.

2023 Vintage

Pascal Prunier has the hands of a winemaker – always a telling sign of a vigneron who spends a lot of time in his vines. And what vines they are. Pascal is the fifth-generation winemaker to run this estate, and as such, it is an estate blessed with a huge proportion of old vines that have been tended by the same family for over a century. With humble appellations at his disposal, it’s this old vine material that sets the Prunier-Bonheur production apart, which Pascal vinifies without fuss in his cool Meursault cellars. The whites are crushed firmly to extract lots of material. After a very short settling the go to barrel with most of their lees and see no battonage. The reds see varying proportions of whole bunches, never enough to stick out. “I’m looking for terroir” Pascal states. And terroir he has, many of these punching well above their weight in terms of complexity and depth. Overall a range of surprisingly persistent, characterful.