Bonny Doon Vineyards Le Cigare Orange Wine 2024 750ml

Expert Review - Vintage 2024

Decanter Magazine by Amy Wislocki writes 92 Points |  Bonny Doon’s winemaker Randall Grahm has triumphed again here (the Bonny Doon red and white at Tesco are also great buys). This mélange of Grenaches Blanc and Noir, Pinot Gris, Orange Muscat and Chenin Blanc is orange wine lite – orange wine for the mainstream, but delicious. The grape varieties were picked and fermented separately and the juice given around 15 days skin contact before blending. Fairly pale in colour for an orange wine, it’s fruit forward with aromas and flavours of peach and apricot, exotic fruit like kumquats, orange peel and soft spice. There’s a hint of pleasant bitterness and a little of the tannic grip that makes orange wine such a good gastronomic wine. Try it with simply grilled lamb chops. Vegan.

Winemaker Description 

• 33% Grenache Blanc, 25% Pinot Gris, 17% Pinot Blanc, 15% Chenin Blanc, 6% Grenache Gris, 2% Orange Muscat, 2% Vermentino
• Central Coast AVA
• Each variety picked and fermented separately

Alcohol: 11.5%

Winemaking: Each variety is picked separately at low brix and good natural acidity. Destemmed and fermented at cool temperatures in both rotary and stainless steel closed top tanks. The average time of skin contact is 14-16 days before pressing into stainless steel. The wine is kept cold and only minimal sulfur is added before bottling. 

Practicing Biodynamic wine making. 

Label Art: Vineyard artwork from 1855 edition of "Bordeaux Chateaux" . Spaceship courtesy of Jules Verne circa 1870. 

Story: In 1954, the village council of Chateauneuf-du-Pape was quite perturbed and apprehensive that flying saucers or "flying cigares" might do damage to their vineyards, were they to land therin. So right-thinking men all, they passed an ordinance prohibiting the landing of flying saucers or flying cigares in their vineyards. The ordinance further states that flying saucers or flying cigares that did land were to be taken immediately to the pound.