Bonvillars is a small wine region at the very northern extremity of Vaud, Switzerland's second-largest wine region. The key Bonvillars vineyards are located on south-facing slopes directly above Bonvillars village. Less than a mile from the shoreline of Lake Neuchatel, these sites enjoy a highly moderated climate with high levels of light reflected from the lake's surface. They run almost unbroken right up to the canton's border in the north, just beyond the appropriately small lakeside town of Concise. Here, the more extensive vineyards of Neuchatel begin, continuing all the way up the lake and beyond, into Bielersee.
As in most Vaud sub-regions, Pinot Noir and Chasselas are the key grapes varieties grown in Bonvillars, along with a modest representation of Gamaret and Garanoir. With its location so close to Neuchatel, Bonvillars is also the source of a good quantity of Oeil de Perdrix, the pale-pink rose wine based on Pinot Noir.
Worthy of note is the fact that right next to Bonvillars is a village called Champagne. This is actually a very common place name in France, despite there being only one particularly famous Champagne and, of course, the Grande and Petite Champagnes in Cognac. Due to international enforcement of the Champagne appellation laws, wines from this little village may not legally be labeled with the name. The local co-operative has long maintained opposition to this and has named its Champagne wines 'C-ampagne' in protest. (© Proprietary Content, Wine-Searcher.)
Just behind Bonvillars is the Val de Travers valley, where the famously strong and hallucinogenic green spirit absinthe was first created. The site of the first commercial absinth distillery, built in 1797, was the village of Couvet, located at the heart of the valley. That distillery was co-owned by Henri-Louis Pernod, whose name still appears on Pernod anise liquors. The area was home to no fewer than 15 distilleries at the turn of the century, but when the spirit was made illegal in 1908 the local absinthe industry inevitably collapsed.
Almost a century after absinthe production was banned, it was legalized once more in March 2005. This change led several clandestine absinthe operations around Bonvillars to go public, and there is a petition in place for the creation of an Absinthe AOC.
