2003 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Marie Beurrier

Henri Bonneau joked that he was "an original natural winemaker but I didn't know it until it became a fashion." He was referring to the cultish wave of non-interventionist wines that has swept across France and much of the wine world. "I protect the forests because I don't use any new oak, and my cleaning regimen is water and a brush, with a little sulfur burnt in the casks for safety. That's it." Bonneau noted that 2006 is a very underrated vintage because the wines aren't powerful. "The main point is that they have superb balance," he told me, "which is essential if you want wine to age well." Bonneau works roughly six hectares of vines spread across ten parcels, and his fruit, which is almost all grenache and harvested at ridiculously low yields (around 10 hectoliters per hectare) is not destemmed. As in past years, the names that I have given to each wine noted below are the ones that Bonneau told me they're likely to receive down the road. But there are never any guarantees. For instance, last year he told me he was pretty sure that he wouldn't make a Reserve des Celestins from 2008, but this fall he said that he was still holding out that possibility, hence my two notes for his 2008s this year. I was shocked, in a very good way, by the finesse and clarity of Bonneau's 2008s and 2009s, which showed little to none of the wild, volatile character that can mark these wines in cask.

Henri Bonneau told me that his thought now is that there will be a single bottling of Chateauneuf from 2008. "It isn't the kind of vintage where you can justify a reserve wine," he explained. "There just isn't enough concentration to the fruit." Over the last few years these notoriously unkempt cellars have become better organized, or easier to understand, and there is clearly a lot more than meets the eye to Bonneau's methodology. The wines also seem brighter, with (relatively) less volatile character than in the past, but their personality has not been compromised. But don't expect Bonneau to suddenly begin releasing his wines earlier. "The wine gets bottled and sold when the time is right for it, not the marketplace," he said.

"What is amazing about the 2007s is that you can almost drink them now, straight from the tank," Henri Bonneau marveled at the beginning of our tasting. "The 2006s, on the other hand, are sharper, with great precision, but they don't have anything like the appeal of 2007. " As for the 2005s: "They are for young people, or for their children. People without patience should look at 2004 instead. " No Reserve des Celestins was produced in 2003, by the way, but the Marie Beurrier is stunning. (Bonneau also told me that he thinks that aged wines should be served with young cheeses and young wines with aged cheese. There was a reference to human relationships in there but my French failed me. ) None of the following wines had been bottled when I visited Bonneau in mid-November.

At the beginning of our tasting Henri Bonneau insisted on showing me a sample of 2007 Crau, which was striking for its sweet raspberry fruit and intense spiciness. That vivid, spicy quality is the mark of the vintage, he says, adding that he thinks 2007 will produce a truly great set of wines. I was flabbergasted to see that the ancient casks in Bonneau's cellar now have chalk markings to identify their contents. Of course, this makes figuring out what is what and where much easier, but it sacrifices some of the surreal quality that makes a tasting here such an adventure. Incidentally, the "divers" barrels are destined for the Marie Beurrier bottling but, as is the practice here, things can and probably will change along the way. The La Crau portion is, at least until final selections are made, earmarked for the Celestins. I found the 2006s here to be remarkably fresh, precise and elegant, without the overt ripeness and wild qualities many people associate with Bonneau's wines-but then these wines will receive at least a few more years of elevage prior to being bottled. The 2004s look to be uncommonly graceful as well, while the 2005s bear greater resemblance to "classic" Bonneau wines, with fabulous depth and sauvage character. There will only be a Marie Beurrier bottling in 2003, a year that Bonneau said "only gave us 20 hectoliters per hectare."

The Chateauneufs here have become legends in their maker's lifetime, and anyone fortunate enough to try them can attest to the fact that these wines are utterly unique examples of the category, as well as some of the most idiosyncratic wines being made anywhere today.A visit to Bonneau is a step back in time-both in terms of the character of the wines and the bewildering maze of ancient cellars where the wines are raised.Tasting through the range of wines resting in cask here must not be much different today than a century or more ago.Wine lovers who judge wines with the New World as their benchmark are bound to be puzzled if not horrified by the wild, sometimes volatile personalities displayed by these bottlings.Old oak here, it seems, means something from the '90s . . . the 1890s.