At the crossing point of Champenois and Burgundian know-how.
Before it reaches the Seine, the Laignes threads along a valley floor between steep hills of pine, oak and vines. This is Les Riceys, the far southern end of Champagne, closer in every sense to Burgundy than to Reims: Kimmeridgian limestone underfoot, and slopes the estate describes as the steepest in the appellation.
Wine here is older than Champagne is. The Gallo-Roman period started the vineyards of the Barséquanais, and serious viticulture arrived with the abbeys — in 1104 William II, Count of Nevers, handed his Tronchois vineyard at Les Riceys to the Abbey of Molesmes, itself founded in 1073. Monks tended these slopes for centuries before anyone thought to put bubbles in the bottle.
The modern recognition came late and was fought for. Les Riceys obtained the Champagne appellation only in 1927, and with it became the largest single terroir in all of Champagne: 844 hectares of vines. The village is also the only one in the region entitled to three separate appellations at once, which is a story of its own and one we tell in our guide to the Aube and Les Riceys.
Alexandre Bonnet sits inside that history rather than beside it. Lucien Noble planted his first vines here in 1934 and passed the enthusiasm down the generations until 1970, when Serge Bonnet — assisted by Alain and René — founded the Domaine under its present name. Arnaud Fabre leads the team today.
A Contrée is the local word for a named piece of vineyard. Alexandre Bonnet has twenty-three of them, and no two are alike: each has its own orientation, its own depth of soil, its own angle of slope.
What the estate does with that is the interesting part. In Champagne the normal practice is to bring everything together — press the fruit, blend across parcels, villages and often years, and produce a house style that tastes the same next year as it did last. Blending is not a compromise here; it is the craft, and it is what made the region's reputation. Alexandre Bonnet works the other way: vinification proceeds parcel by parcel, in what the estate calls the Burgundian mode. Its own description of the approach is une démarche à part en Champagne — a way of working set apart from the region.
This has a cost, and it is worth naming. Parcel-by-parcel vinification means more vessels, more decisions, more risk that one lot disappoints with no larger blend to absorb it. What you get in return is a wine that says where it grew rather than who made it. Whether that trade is worth making is the argument grower champagne has been having with the houses for a century, and we set it out in the longer piece on growers and the grandes maisons.
Parcel-driven and unusual, or a house style you can rely on? Two minutes decides.
Find your Champagne moment →Most people who know a little about champagne will tell you it is made from three grapes: Pinot Noir, Meunier and Chardonnay. That is true of almost every bottle, but it is not what the rules permit. Seven varieties are historic to the appellation, and four of them — Blanc Vrai, Buret, Arbane and Petit Meslier — came so close to disappearing that most drinkers will never meet them.
One parcel at Alexandre Bonnet is planted with all seven. The estate says it is the only such vineyard in the entire appellation, and the wine it produces, Les Contrées 7 Cépages, is a vintage cuvée made from that single plot. It is not a curiosity for its own sake: the four forgotten grapes bring textures and acidities the famous three do not, and tasting them together is the closest thing available to hearing what champagne sounded like before the market narrowed it.
Another Contrée, La Forêt, does something almost as unusual: it supplies four different wines, including the estate's Rosé des Riceys.
Pinot Noir drawn from several Contrées — the estate's baseline and the fairest introduction to what this corner of the Côte des Bar does with the grape. Weight rather than tension; the southern signature.
All seven historic varieties from one vineyard, which the estate believes is unique in the appellation. Described by the house as a kaleidoscope of textures; in practice, the most instructive bottle they make.
A single Contrée bottled alone, and the same plot that yields the estate's still wines. Useful to drink alongside the Rosé des Riceys: identical ground, entirely different wine.
No bubbles, tiny quantities, whole-bunch macerated Pinot Noir under an appellation almost nobody outside the village has heard of. The estate calls it their little gem, and visitors are routinely surprised that Champagne makes such a thing at all.
The farming is quieter than a certification would make it sound: no herbicides, no insecticides, orchards planted along the edges of the vines and wild flowers left standing for the bees. In spring the slopes come up in wild orchids. None of that is a label on the bottle, and the estate does not present it as one.
Most of the people working here come from the village or from a few kilometres around it, which in a region increasingly farmed by contract crews is worth noticing. It is also the practical precondition for the whole parcel-by-parcel method: keeping twenty-three plots distinct requires people who can tell them apart by eye in February.
What are the Contrées at Alexandre Bonnet?
Contrée is the local word for a named parcel of vines. The estate has twenty-three of them, and each differs in orientation, soil depth and steepness. Rather than blending the fruit at the press, Alexandre Bonnet vinifies parcel by parcel in the Burgundian manner, which the estate itself describes as a departure from normal practice in Champagne.
Which parcel is planted with seven grape varieties?
A Contrée called Les Contrées, which the estate says is the only parcel in the whole appellation planted with all seven historic champagne varieties: Pinot Noir, Meunier, Chardonnay, Blanc Vrai, Buret, Arbane and Petit Meslier. It produces a vintage cuvée called Les Contrées 7 Cépages.
Where is Domaine Alexandre Bonnet?
In Les Riceys, at the far southern end of the Champagne appellation in the Côte des Bar, on Kimmeridgian limestone. The estate describes its position as the crossing point of Champenois and Burgundian know-how, and its slopes as the steepest in Champagne.
How old is the estate?
The Domaine as such was founded in 1970 by Serge Bonnet, assisted by Alain and René. The family's vines go back further: Lucien Noble planted his first in 1934. The team is now led by Arnaud Fabre.
What is Rosé des Riceys?
A still rosé wine with its own appellation, made in tiny quantities from whole-bunch macerated Pinot Noir. It surprises people because it is made in Champagne and has no bubbles at all. Alexandre Bonnet produces it from the Contrée known as La Forêt.
When did Les Riceys gain the Champagne appellation?
In 1927, after a long fight. With that recognition Les Riceys became the largest single terroir in Champagne, with 844 hectares of vines.