Rémi and Patricia Bonneton ‘L'Alezan Suspens’

Suspens is a blend of Marsanne & Roussane from a tiny parcel they acquired just a stone's throw away from the river bend where the iconic appellations of the Northern Rhône all converge. The vines are between 5 and 25 years in age and are planted over a mixture of loess and rocky sandstone.

This particular bottling is a blend of three vintages from 2017, 18 & 19, which have been aged in a sort of simplified solera system. The grapes were first direct-pressed in whole bunches, before being fermented in tank and then racked and blended into varying vessels of wood and steel with the older wines, before seeing the last year of maturation in clay Tinaja brought to their cellars from Spain.

It is a powerful white wine that has a beautifully chiselled structure, the ripe stone fruits balanced with a distinct mineral clarity and well-poised acidity. These wines are designed to go the distance, and while drinking well now have the potential to be cellared for decades to come.

Grapes: Marsanne, Rousanne

About the Winemaker: 

In the early 2000s, Rémi Bonneton began working the vineyards in Northern Rhône with his two horses, Suspens and Palynka. He ploughed the soils for some of the area's most desirable domaines. Along his journey, he produced a small amount of his own wine. In 2013, Bonneton and his wife, Patricia, found their first Syrah vineyard parcel on the terraced slopes of the Doux Valley in the Ardèche. It is still worked using horses and ploughs, as primarily done by Rémi. Rémi, who was formerly a professional rower, now works diligently on the two-hectare estate of La Tangente - on one of its parcels planted close to Tournon Sur Rhône, with Roussanne and Marsanne grapes on a hill overlooking the well-known Cornas and Saint-Joseph vineyards. Vines receive no chemical treatments, and the cellar utilizes spontaneous fermentation with no additives. The team works towards their long-term goals--a new cellar in Etables, an experimental planting of Albariño, and expanding their vineyard plots--by acquiring grapes from other growers.