Jon Bonné has covered the world of wine and food extensively for some two decades. Previously his career as a journalist spanned everything from the airline industry to national politics, beginning with an early, diligent, and eclectic career in public radio.
Currently, as the Managing Editor of RESY, he oversees an international team of editors and contributors covering restaurants in more than 20 cities. As the Senior Contributing Editor at PUNCH, he wrote a monthly column, recommended wines from around the world, and created the PUNCH Hot 25.
As the Wine Editor and Chief Wine Critic of The San Francisco Chronicle, he tasted thousands of bottles each year and selected the Chronicle’s Top 100 Wines, as well as the paper’s Winemaker of the Year, in addition to editing the paper’s combined Food & Wine and standalone Wine sections. His weekly column, “Thirst,” was widely read throughout the industry. In 2008, he created the Chronicle’s annual Bar Stars feature to highlight the city’s cocktail talent. In April 2011, at his direction, the Chronicle became the first major newspaper to list alcohol levels for each of the wines it reviews.
Bonné regularly contributes to such publications as The Washington Post, Saveur, and Noble Rot, and for several years he served as the U.S. columnist for Decanter magazine.
Selected work:
RESY
TEN RESTAURANTS THAT DEFINE AMERICAN DINING
Winter ’23 | Fall ’23 | Summer ’23 | Spring ’23 | Winter ’22 | Fall ’22 | Summer ’22
“19 Restaurants That Defined Dining in America This Year,” Dec. 2023
“Anthony Mangieri Is Pushing Pizza Boundaries Again,” Mar. 2023
“The Resy Guide to Drinking Great French Wine,” Jan. 2023
“Midtown’s French Legends Are Gone. La Bonne Soupe Ladles On,” Jan. 2023
“Call Dan Richer’s Pizza Exceptional. Just Don’t Call It NY Pizza,” Sept. 2022
“Ten Restaurants That Define American Cooking Right Now,” July 2021
“Introducing the Wine Hit List,” Oct. 2020
“The Enduring Value of NY’s Oldest Chinese Restaurant,” Aug. 2020
“For Nancy Silverton, Flexibility Is the Future,” Aug. 2020
“What Are the New Restaurant Manners?” June 2020
“Wine Sales Are Keeping Restaurants Afloat. All It Took Was a Pandemic,” April 2020
PUNCH
“France’s ‘Disco Wines’ Are Not Dead,” Feb. 2020
“The Wine Stories That Will Shape 2020,” Dec. 2019
“The Quiet Defiance of Decibel,” April 2019
“An Antidote to Wine-Bar Sameness,” Nov. 2018
“Does Bordeaux Even Want to Change?” Oct. 2018
“At Majordomo, a List That Navigates Wine’s Divide,” Oct. 2018
“There’s More to Tasting Wine than Taste,” Sept. 2018
“Why Is the Wine World So Un-Woke?” July 2018 **
“Can Sancerre Be More than Basique?” August 2018
“Why Bibimbap With Beaujolais is the New Normal,” May 2018
“Is There a Middle Way Through Wine’s Natural Divide?” April 2018
“In Search of France’s Great Southern Wine,” February 2018
“Sorry, Paris, London is Europe’s New Wine Capital,” January 2018
“Why It’s Time to Stop Fetishizing Wine Expertise,” Nov. 2017
“California’s Wildfires and Wine in America,” Oct. 2017
“Is It Time for Pet-Nat to Grow Up?” August 2017
“Why Almost Famous Is the Best Wine Movie Ever,” July 2017
“How Anjou Became the Capital of Natural Wine,” June 2017
“The Life and Afterlife of Terroir,” June 2017
“What Does Great Wine Service Look Like Today?” April 2017
“How Saumur Became A Loire Powerhouse,” March 2017
“Can Wine Save Our Fading Love Affair With France?” Dec. 2016
“Australian Wine’s Return to Cool,” November 2016
“Alsace’s Tangled Path to the Avant-Garde,” October 2016
“Can a Wine List Help Narrow the Gender Gap?” Sept. 2016
“A New Era for White Wine,” Sept. 2016
“Can the Savoie Become the Rhône’s Rival Sister?” July 2016
“Why Burgundy Is Still the Greatest Place for Wine,” June 2016
“Is There Life in Provence Beyond Rosé?” May 2016
“An Unexpected Twist in California’s Culture Wars,” May 2016
“The Many Shades of Etna Rosso,” April 2016
“Is Oregon Wine’s Soulmate the Loire Valley?” April 2016
“What Does It Mean for a Wine to Be Corsican?” March 2016
“The Wiz vs. Kanye of White Wine,” March 2016
“France’s Most Underrated White Wine,” February 2016 (en Français)
“Wine Collecting Beyond the Bloodsport,” Dec. 2015
“Where Is America’s Cider Revival Headed?” Nov. 2015
“Long Island Wine’s Hunt for a New Identity,” Nov. 2015
“The Great Equalizing of Natural Wine,” Oct. 2015
“Who Will Decide the Future of Beaujolais?” Sept. 2015
“Will the Real Jura Please Stand Up?” Sept. 2015
“The Best Wine List in America?” Aug. 2015
“A Serious Case for Sweet, Fizzy Wine,” July 2015
“The Rise of Champagne’s Rebel South,” July 2015
“Where Have All the Other Summer Wines Gone?” June 2015
“The Jura Wines Nobody’s Telling You About,” June 2015
“Champagne’s Next Revolution Is Now,” May 2015
“So Long Seahaven: Wine’s New Mainstream,” May 2015
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
TOP 100 WINES
2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008
WINEMAKERS OF THE YEAR
2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006
“A Return to His Roots,” March 2016
“California’s Once and Future Radical,” Nov. 2015
“Are California Wine Prices Too High?” Sept. 2015
“San Francisco’s Vineyard,” July 2015
“Is Proximity the Sin?” May 2015
“A Thirsty Pilgrim’s Trip,” March 2015
“The Last Sommelier Standing,” March 2015
“A Surreal, Serene Upstairs Bar,” March 2015
“Finessing Cabernet, With Burgundy in Mind,” Feb. 2015
“Connecting California’s Past and Future,” Jan. 2015
“If You Carbonate Wine, Can It Be Good?” Jan. 2015
“The IPA Era Is Over,” Jan. 2015
“A Rarified Take on Japanese Drinking,” Dec. 2014
“Which Champagne Fits You Best?” Dec. 2014 [view in PDF]
“Our Thanksgiving Wine Wheel” Nov. 2014 [view in PDF]
“A Man Cave With a Higher Gear,” Sept. 2014
“In One Big Vineyard, a World of Its Own,” Sept. 2014
“An Era of Freestyle,” Sept. 2014
“A Proper Drink: The Hunt for Hotel Bars,” Sept. 2014
“The Return of California Cabernet,” Aug. 2014
“A Bar Dedicated to the Past and Future,” Aug. 2014
“Where the Ghosts of Wine Glory Linger,” June 2014
“Found in a Gorge, A Promising Paradise for Wine,” May 2014
“Is Pink the New White?” May 2014
“A Vineyard Wanderer Makes His Own Mark,” March 2014
“A New Napa Talent, With an Eye for the Past,” Feb. 2014
“On Robert Parker, and Matters of Taste,” Feb. 2014
“Somewhere Between Dry and Sweet,” Jan. 2014
“Steve Matthiasson Digs for Napa’s Roots,” Jan. 2014
“Wine’s Brave New World is Vintage Lynch,” Dec. 2013
“Claiming a Family Legacy on a Storied Napa Spot,” Nov. 2013
“A California Journey,” Nov. 2013
“Arizona Takes Aim at Wine’s Big Leagues,” Sept. 2013
“In San Diego, Wine’s Promise Among the Palms,” Aug. 2013
“An Improbable Guardian Takes Over at Mayacamas,” Aug. 2013
“How John Kongsgaard Rewrote the Rules of White Wine,” July 2013
“Sherry’s Great Hopes, Found at Its Fringes,” July 2013
“Passover Flavors in a Glass,” May 2013
“Wine Criticism Faces Its Shifting Future,” Feb. 2013
“Vermentino’s Global Travels,” Jan. 2013
“Arnot-Roberts’ Homegrown Talents,” Jan. 2013
“Saving California’s Heritage, One Vine at a Time,” Oct. 2012
“The Missing Ingredient in Wine,” Oct. 2012
“Randy Dunn’s Cabernet Crusade,” Aug. 2012
“Austria’s New Era of Terroir,” Jun. 2012
“Restoring a Napa Legend,” May 2012
“Wine Country in SoMa,” Mar. 2012
“The Incredible Shrinking Wine Lists,” Mar. 2012
“Santa Rita Hills’ Bold New Era,” Mar. 2012
“A Native Son With An Eye for Vineyards,” Feb. 2012
“The False Promise of Cheap Wine,” Nov. 2011
“How Less Power Led to Staying Power,” Sept. 2011
“A New Age for White Wines,” Aug. 2011
“A List to Match a Legacy,” Aug. 2011
“A Fruit Innovator to the World,” June 2011
“Looking Anew at UC Davis,” June 2011
“A Corked Carrot?” Apr. 2011
“Healing the Great Zin Divide,” Jan. 2011
“Ted Lemon,” Dec. 2010
“Tadich’s Spirited Tradition,” Nov. 2010
“Mondavis Find Their Next Step,” Oct. 2010
“The Growing Clash Over ‘Natural Wine,'” Sept. 2010
“Randall Grahm,” Aug. 2010
“Carignane Gets a Shot at Respect, Quietly,” Aug. 2010
“Change Has Come to Chablis,” Jun. 2010
“An Old Grape on Its Rainbow Tour,” April 2010
“In Burgundy, One House Grows By Thinking Small,” April 2010
“In Napa, a Path to Using Less Water,” Mar. 2010
“Reaching a Peak, Quietly,” Feb. 2010
“Lineage of Luminaries,” Feb. 2010
“Tools for a Memorable Martini,” Dec. 2009
“Do Our Wine Lists Ignore California?,” Oct. 2009
“Orange Crush,” Oct. 2009
“Vintage Grace,” Sept. 2009
“R Rule Gets a Summer Rewind,” Aug. 2009
“A Smoky Memento,” July 2009
“Sonoma’s Mysterious Mother Lode,” Mar. 2009
“The Other Cabernet,” Mar. 2009
“Keys to the Sidecar,” Mar. 2009
“Sherry, Baby,” Jan. 2009
“Revolution by the Glass,” Aug. 2008 **
“The Stuff of Dreams and Seafood,” Aug. 2008
“When Syrah Met Pinot,” Feb. 2008
“Napa Off the Map,” Sept. 2007
“Paul Draper,” Dec. 2006
“Smile, You’re On Culinary Candid Camera,” Sept. 2006
THE WASHINGTON POST
“How 2008 Changed the Wine World,” April 2019
“The Mâcon Attempts A Reinvention,” January 2019
“Finding Inspiration in ‘Interesting’,” October 2016
“Can Pop-Top Wine Survive?,” May 2016
SAVEUR
“The New California Wine,” Oct. 2010 **
“Western Expansion,” May 2013
“Beaune to Pick,” June 2017
FORTUNE
“The Cellar Master Who’s Changing Champagne,” Dec. 2019
“Why the Bib Gourmands Are the Michelins That Matter,” Oct. 2019
“The Women Winemakers of Chablis,” July 2019
TASTE
“The Great Regression,” Sept. 2019
“America Now Owns the Salade Composée,” Jan. 2021
CNN
“Trump’s Proposed Wine Tariffs,” Jan. 2020
FOOD & WINE
“A Restaurateur’s Rules for Multi-Culti Pairing,” April 2008
WINE & SPIRITS
“Post-Premox,” April 2017
NOBLE ROT
“Battle of the Somm,” Issue 32 (June 2023)
“Nap Store,” Issue 30 (Oct. 2022)
“The Inanity of Cool,” Issue 21 (Oct. 2019)
“The Pleasure of Now,” Issue 12 (Oct. 2016)
NBC NEWS + MSNBC
“North Carolina Embraces the Vine, Again,” Sept. 2006
“Napa’s Defining Wines Stick to Their Roots,” June 2006
“A True Sage of Wine Gets Personal,” May 2006
“A Cure for Bad Chardonnay,” Apr. 2006
“On ‘Lost,’ Eko Is a Man Divided,” Jan. 2006
“Time to Get Back In the Action,” Jan. 2006
“The Grapes of Beaujolais, the Spirit of America,” Nov. 2005
“For ‘Lost’s’ Tail-Enders, Dangers From Within,” Nov. 2005
“A Love is ‘Lost’ as Show Labors On,” Nov. 2005
“Muscadet Makes Itself the Perfect Oyster Wine,” Oct. 2005
“Pining for a Perfect Pizza,” Aug. 2005
“A Not-Close-to-Perfect Pizza Recipe,” Aug. 2005
“10 Foods That Make America Great,” July 2005
“Evolving With Our Stomachs,” May 2005
“Noodles, Reinvented,” Feb. 2005
“Squeezing Information Down to Size,” Jan. 2005
“Blog Nice, Everyone,” Jan. 2005
“One Year After Mad Cow, Questions Linger,” Dec. 2004
“A Free-Trade Fight Over Wine,” Dec. 2004
“Beaujolais Nouveau? Them’s Fightin’ Words,” Nov. 2004
“Livestock Antibiotics Found In Waterways,” Oct. 2004
“A Mystery in the Wild,” Aug. 2004
“Rhubarb Hunts a Place Beyond the Pie,” Sept. 2004
“Wine’s Potent Appeal May Be at Its Limit,” Aug. 2004
“Can the Animals You Eat Be Treated Humanely?” June 2004
“Mad Cow Hunt Begins, But Will It Work?” June 2004
“Faced With Fire, a City Prepares Itself,” June 2004
“Beyond ‘Eureka,’ Plenty of Preparation,” April 2004
“Back On the Land, Back in Control,” March 2004
“Mad Cow: What Is the Goal?” “How Much Is Enough?” March 2004
“Mad Cow Testing Official Resigns,” March 2004
“More Evidence Mad Cow Not a ‘Downer,'” Feb. 2004
“Was Diseased Cow Indeed a ‘Downer’?” Feb. 2004
“Big Store or Small?” Feb. 2004
“737 Gets New Toilets Designed to Please,” Jan. 2004
“A DC-3 Flies the Northern Skies,” Dec. 2003
“World’s Secondhand Fleet Still Soars,” Dec. 2003
“An Airplane Hall of Fame,” Nov. 2003
“Getting The Best Workers to Stay,” Nov. 2003
“‘The Simpsons,’ Back From the Pit,” Nov. 2003
“These Men Want Their Foreskins Back,” Oct. 2003
“Dissecting the Overtime Debate,” Sept. 2003
“Employees Eye the Exit Door Again,” Sept. 2003
“Are We Done With the 40-Hour Week?” Aug. 2003
“The Convenient Carrot,” Jul. 2003
“Meet Espresso’s Exacting Master,” May 2003
“Inside the Mysteries of Airline Fares,” May 2003
“An Elusive Beast: The Cheap Airfare,” May 2003
“Private Space Race, Public Hurdles,” April 2003
“Flying to Space: A Cockpit View,” April 2003
“Private Manned Space Plane Unveiled,” April 2003
“How to Cure Airlines’ Ills,” Feb. 2003
“A Well-Tested Eye in the Sky,” Feb. 2003
“Making Sense of the Airline Business,” Jan. 2003
“‘Go Pills’: A War on Drugs?” Jan. 2003
“The Airline Business Doesn’t Work,” Dec. 2002
“Guarding America’s Back Door,” Sept. 2002
“On Duty in the Middle of Nowhere,” Sept. 2002
“Fire Fight: The New Battle” (Aug. 2002 special report)
“Man’s Meddling”; “Major Changes on the Land”; “Fire and Money”
“Huge Gaps Remain on Northern Border,” Jul. 2002
“Suicide Scenario Was Nothing New,” May 2002
“A Test of Faith: One Diocese’s Struggle” (Feb. 2002 special report)
“The Sister’s Battle With the Bishop”; “A Diocese Feels the Pain”
“In Search for Suspect, Familiar Name Appears,” Sept. 11, 2001
“Sioux Fight Feds, This Time Over Hemp”, Sept. 2001
“Crowded Skies Impact Air Quality,” Jul. 2001
“Unrepentant McVeigh Is Executed,” June 2001
“From Blast’s Rubble, New Precautions,” May 2001
“Meth’s Deadly Buzz” (Feb. 2001 special report)
“Lab-Busting”; “Scourge of the Heartland”; “Hooked in the Haight”
“‘The Simpsons’ Has Lost Its Cool,” Part I + Part II, Oct. 2000 [see also]
“A Tale of Two Miamis,” Apr. 2000
“The Curse of the Moderate,” Mar. 2000
“Prosecutors Rebuff Kaczynski Claims,” Mar. 2000
“What Role Now for Independents?” (Feb. 2000)
ELSEWHERE
“A Seat at Mission Control From the Comfort of Home,” The New York Times, Sept. 1997
“The President On Trial: Sifting Through the Evidence,” Court TV, Jan. 1999
“A Question of Competency,” Court TV, Jan. 1998
“Staten Island Secession,” National Public Radio, 1993 [mp3]
“Russian Election,” National Public Radio, 1993 [mp3]
SEEN AND HEARD
KCRW Good Food: The New Wine Rules (2018)
The Stew: Talking Wine with Jon Bonné (2018)
Heritage Radio Network: The Food Seen (2018)
Heritage Radio Network: Grape Nation (2018)
The New Paris Podcast: On Wine (2017)
Heritage Radio Network: Grape Nation (2016)
Mintroducing: Jon Bonné (2014)
NPR On Point: The State of America’s Wine Industry (2014)
JCCSF Arts & Ideas: The New California Wine – Listen | Watch (2014)
Google Talks: The New California Wine (2014)
The Commonwealth Club: Tasting the New California Wine (2014)
I’ll Drink to That: Episode 126 (2013)
Heritage Radio Network: In The Drink (2013)
NPR The California Report: The New California Wine (2013)
KCRW Good Food: Major Shifts in Calif. Wine (2013)
KQED Forum: Wine Demystified (2013)
I’ll Drink to That: Episode 23 (2012)
Wine Press NW: Chronicle Wine Competition (2012)
Gastrotommy: In Pursuit of Balance (2011)
** shortlisted for James Beard Award