Bonny Doon Le Cigare Blanc 2018

  • 91 Wine
    Enthusiast
3.7 Very Good (13)
2022 Vintage In Stock
16 99
OFFER Take $20 off your order of $100+
Ships Tomorrow
You purchased the 2019 3/9/24
1
Limit Reached
You purchased the 2019 3/9/24
Alert me about new vintages and availability
Bonny Doon Le Cigare Blanc 2018  Front Bottle Shot
Bonny Doon Le Cigare Blanc 2018  Front Bottle Shot Bonny Doon Le Cigare Blanc 2018 Front Label

Product Details


Varietal

Region

Producer

Vintage
2018

Size
750ML

ABV
13.5%

Features
Green Wine

Screw Cap

Your Rating

0.0 Not For Me NaN/NaN/N

Somm Note

Winemaker Notes

Pale, slightly lime-green color with great freshness and a rather bracing acidity and a strong element of “minerality.” Despite its Central Coastal California provenance, the wine really does strongly signify some Mediterranean antecedents - a suggestion of herbal underbrush, sunny, coastal, salt-kissed citrus. The crisp acidity of the wine along with the lemon/lime element, makes it the perfect refreshing accompaniment to any dish that itself would benefit from a slight spritz of citrus. The ’18 Cigare Blanc is somewhat lower in alcoholic degree, higher in acidity with a significantly softer tannic profile than Cigares d’antan. Le Cigare Blanc remains a great vin de gastronomie, pairing well with lighter seafood, as well as serving as an exemplary apéritif

Professional Ratings

  • 91

    Bright and clean aromas of honeydew and cantaloupe mesh with fresh gardenia, peach and mango on the nose of this blend of 54% Grenache Blanc and 46% Vermentino from three vineyards in Arroyo Seco and the Edna Valley. It tightens up on the sip, where Meyer lemon pith and lime skin lead into more lush guava tones

Other Vintages

2022
  • 90 Wine
    Enthusiast
2020
  • 92 Decanter
  • 91 Wine
    Enthusiast
2019
  • 90 Wine
    Enthusiast
2015
  • 90 Wine
    Spectator
2014
  • 93 Wine
    Enthusiast
  • 93 James
    Suckling
2013
  • 91 Wine
    Enthusiast
2008
  • 88 Robert
    Parker
2006
  • 87 Robert
    Parker
2004
  • 92 Wine
    Enthusiast
2003
  • 91 Wine
    Enthusiast
Bonny Doon

Bonny Doon

View all products
Bonny Doon, California
Bonny Doon Popelouchum Vineyard Winery Image

While Bonny Doon Vineyard began with the (in retrospect) foolish attempt to replicate Burgundy in California, Randall Grahm realized early on that he would have far more success creating more distinctive and original wines working with Rhône varieties in the Central Coast of California. The key learning here (achieved somewhat accidentally but fortuitously) was that in a warm, Mediterranean climate, it is usually blended wines that are most successful. In 1986 Bonny Doon Vineyard released the inaugural vintage (1984) of Le Cigare Volant, an homage to Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and this continues as the winery’s flagship/starship brand.

Since then, Bonny Doon Vineyard has enjoyed a long history of innovation – the first to truly popularize Rhône grapes in California, to successfully work with cryo-extraction for sundry “Vins de Glacière, the first to utilize microbullage in California, the first to popularize screwcaps for premium wines, and, quite significantly, the first to embrace true transparency in labeling with its ingredient labeling initiative. The upside of all of this activity has brought an extraordinary amount of creativity and research to the California wine scene; the doon-side, as it were, was perhaps an ever so slight inability to focus, to settle doon, if you will, into a single, coherent direction.1

Bonny Doon Vineyard grew and grew with some incredibly popular brands (Big House, Cardinal Zin and Pacific Rim) until it became the 28th largest winery in the United States. Randall came to the realization – better late than Nevers – that he had found that the company had diverged to a great extent from his original intention of producing soulful, distinctive and original wines, and that while it was amusing to be able to get restaurant reservations almost anywhere (the only real tangible perk he was able to discern from the vast scale of the operation), it was time to take a decisive course correction. With this in mind, he sold off the larger brands (Big House and Cardinal Zin) in 2006 and Pacific Rim in 2010.

In the intervening years, the focus of the winery has been to spend far more time working with vineyards in improving their practices, as well as on making wines with a much lighter touch – using indigenous yeast whenever possible, and more or less eschewing vinous maquillage, (at least not to Tammy Faye Bakker-like levels). Recently, Randall has purchased an extraordinary property in San Juan Bautista, which he calls Popelouchum, (the Mutsun word for “paradise,”) where he is profoundly intent on producing singular wines expressive of place. There are also very grand plans afoot to plant a dry-farmed Estate Cigare vineyard.

Image for Rhône White Blends content section
View all products

Full-bodied and flavorful, white Rhône blends originate from France’s Rhône Valley. Today these blends are also becoming popular in other regions. Typically some combination of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier form the basis of a white Rhône blend with varying degrees of flexibility depending on the exact appellation. Somm Secret—In the Northern Rhône, blends of Marsanne and Roussanne are common but the south retains more variety. Marsanne, Roussanne as well as Bourboulenc, Clairette, Picpoul and Ugni Blanc are typical.

Image for Central Coast Wine California content section
View all products

The largest and perhaps most varied of California’s wine-growing regions, the Central Coast produces a good majority of the state's wine. This vast California wine district stretches from San Francisco all the way to Santa Barbara along the coast, and reaches inland nearly all the way to the Central Valley.

Encompassing an extremely diverse array of climates, soil types and wine styles, it contains many smaller sub-AVAs, including San Francisco Bay, Monterey, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Paso Robles, Edna Valley, Santa Ynez Valley and Santa Maria Valley.

While the Central Coast California wine region could probably support almost any major grape varietiy, it is famous for a few Central Coast reds and whites. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel are among the major ones. The Central Coast is home to many of the state's small, artisanal wineries crafting unique, high-quality wines, as well as larger producers also making exceptional wines.

CHMBND1151018_2018 Item# 575683

Internet Explorer is no longer supported.
Please use a different browser like Edge, Chrome or Firefox to enjoy all that Wine.com has to offer.

It's easy to make the switch.
Enjoy better browsing and increased security.

Yes, Update Now

Search for ""