Château Henri Bonnaud

Château Henri Bonnaud is a 28 hectare family estate, located at the foot of the Sainte Victoire, where the entire vineyard is managed organically. Stéphane, the winegrower, produces Palette appellation wines, but also Côtes de Provence, Côtes de Provence Sainte Victoire, and IGP Méditerranée. The terroir consists of a clay-limestone soil known as Langesse, with more than 3000 hours of annual sunshine and 650 millimetres of rain, giving the vines a favourable context for the production of great wines. The vineyard is located in the heart of a magnificent countryside whose black spindles of cypress trees, vines, olive groves and pines, emerging from the red earth, inspired the painter Cézanne.

Our story

Château Henri Bonnaud is the story of a grandson, Stéphane Spitzglous, passionate about the land, wine and its terroir, and wishing to pay tribute to his grandfather, the famous Henri Bonnaud. In this story, it is impossible to talk about one, let alone the other! Henri Bonnaud was a man of the Earth. Since 1920, his father had been cultivating 11 hectares of vines in Le Tholonet, 10 km south-east of Aix en Provence. At that time, he had quite naturally taken over the family business and had therefore become a farmer and winegrower. He also cultivated other commodities (wheat, fruit trees, corn...) on the same clay and limestone soil known as Langesse, literally located at the foot of the Montagne de la Sainte Victoire. Stéphane Spitzglous, Henri Bonnaud's grandson and current winegrower and owner of the estate, insisted at length on taking over the vineyard from his grandfather. Not that he doesn't want to listen to his grandson! But rather, not believing that the Earth was a profession of the future, he encouraged her to continue her studies. Well decided and passionate about viticulture, Stéphane took over his grandfather's vineyards in 1996, after a degree in Physical Sciences. The wines from the 11 hectares of vines had since 1948, the date of creation of the appellation, the possibility of claiming the PDO Palette. After 8 harvests in the cooperative cellar, he vinified for the first time, within the estate itself, his first PDO Palette "Château Henri Bonnaud rouge 2004" cuvée. His first vintages, called "vin de garage" were made in a family Provençal farmhouse, where he lived with his family at the time. Twelve years later, the passion is still the same. Thanks to his work and perseverance, Stéphane Spitzglous created two years ago a wine estate with a perfectly adapted vat house and cellars offering him all the necessary comfort to produce 150,000 bottles and 10 vintages per vintage.