An iconic figure of the Côte des Blancs, the Franck Bonville house is dedicated to accurately capturing the diversity of Champagne’s great chalky terroirs. Through its single-vineyard cuvées, it explores the nuances of the Grand Cru-classified villages, using Chardonnay to achieve a pure, unadorned expression. The winemaking process, deliberately restrained, emphasizes the terroir’s character and the wines’ natural tension. With Pur Mesnil 2019, the house presents a particularly refined interpretation of the Mesnil-sur-Oger terroir. Sourced from three plots located primarily at the lower part of the hillside, where chalk lies just beneath the surface, this cuvée reveals a personality of great restraint, characterized by precision and verticality.
The nose unfolds with subtlety, revealing notes of lemon zest, fresh apple, white flowers, and damp stone, accompanied by an almost marine, iodine-like nuance. Upon aeration, hints of pure chalk, fresh almond, and oyster shell emerge—clear signatures of the great terroirs of Mesnil. The palate impresses with its directness and briny brilliance. The texture, fine and slender, unfolds with surgical precision, carried by delicate effervescence and perfectly integrated acidity. The very low dosage allows the terroir to express itself in all its truth: a vibrant tension, a lingering chalky sensation, and a finish of striking purity—long, taut, and almost saline.
Vinified in stainless steel cuves with alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, then aged for five years on lees under cork before disgorgement in the fall of 2025, this Blanc de Blancs asserts a resolutely gastronomic and mineral style.
