2016 Bonpas (FVG) Croix de Bonpas Cotes-Du-Rhone Villages 750 ml

This wine first crossed our path at a fateful Friendsgiving party. Glowing deep ruby in the glass, it immediately pushed all our favorite Côtes du Rhône buttons. Meaty and rich on the palate with a tantalizing plum core, it sent up a signature Rhône bouquet of dried red roses, soil, and tobacco, and closed with a mouthwatering finish. A complete crowd-pleaser, it was the table’s first casualty, emptied within 20 minutes. 

A journalist friend had stowed the bottle away in his suitcase and smuggled it over from his last trip to France. “You won’t find anything else like it,” he said, smiling, dashing our hopes of putting together a quick allocation. “And wait until you hear the price!”

If we couldn’t find anything like it, we were determined to lock down the genuine article itself. A few long weeks later, we finally did: At just $20, it’s one of those perfectly realized red Rhône bargains you have to buy on sight, or risk pining over once it disappears.

And this one is a rarity—a Wine Access exclusive, it’s the 2016 Croix de Bonpas’s first appearance on the U.S. market. Lauded by Wine Enthusiast as “full bodied and succulent but balanced by crisp acidity and a tannic frame,” the Côte du Rhônes Villages packs tremendous value and can easily steal the show at the dinner table.

The ancient Bonpas estate is renowned for two main things: its mastery with the Grenache grape, and its alluvial soils dotted with round stones, lending character and elegance to wines that hail from up and down the Durance River.

The winery relies on a 700-year history in the region to coax dense concentration, aromatic delicacy, and elegant structure from the Grenache grape, which shines in this release, accented with Syrah, Mourvèdre, and Carignan. Vines in excess of 25 years of age, located between the Uchaux Hills and Plan de Dieu, help provide the depth and extract that make this release drink like a bottle twice the price.

The Bonpas motto, “The wine is steady while the world is turning,” is a riff off the motto of the Carthusian monks who used to run the property (stat crux dum volvitur orbis, or “the cross is steady while the world is turning”). In 2016, the world’s turning happened to put into motion a near-perfect vintage in the Rhône valley. 

“2016 has tannin, fruit, freshness, power,” said influential Rhône consultant Philippe Cambie to Wine Spectator. “It’s the best vintage of my life.” 

Jeb Dunnuck called the appellations “treasure troves of value-priced wines for the savvy shopper.” The Croix de Bonpas sits at the perfect nexus of quality and value, and a vintage like this one just pushes it to another level.