WBW #37: Go Native with Indigenous Grape Varieties

Later today…we’re finally sipping on our WBW wine, a Bugey Cerdon Rosé courtesy of importer Louis/Dressner Selections (and purchased at Larchmont Wine and Spirits in Los Angeles for about twenty bucks or so).

From what we’ve read, Bugey is a very small wine region in France, between Lyons and Geneva in the Jura area. All in all, it’s relatively obscure. Grape varietals of the area include Gamay, Chardonnay, and the native Poulsard from Northern Jura, as well as Roussette and Mondeuse, both from Savoie. While a variety of wines are made, including some decent still wines, the best known of the area is the Cerdon Methode Ancestrale. The Louis/Dressner website describes the style as “a semi-dry, pink bubbly made by spontaneous, but incomplete, fermentation.”

Since the L/D site is so damn informative, and since we’re so late in getting this to press, we think we’ll just continue quoting them to describe the Methode Ancestrale:

The grapes are picked by hand, pressed and fermented in cold vats until the alcohol reaches about 6 degrees. After a light filtration that leaves most of the active yeast in the unfinished wine, it is bottled and continues its fermentation in the bottle, reaching about 7.5 or 8 degrees of alcohol and retaining a fair quantity of its original sugar. It is more vinous (with grapey primary aromas) than most Champagne, since there is neither dosage nor addition of yeast before the second fermentation.

The winemaker for this particular Bugey is Alain Renardat. The grapes are a blend of Gamay (okay, that’s native to Burgundy/Beaujolais) and Poulsard (that’s from Jura. Yay! We’ve gone native, at least half-way!). We’re not sure what is meant by “incomplete” fermentation, though we did have a heart-stopping experience when opening this particular bottle. Before we could even remove the wire loop underneath the foil capsule, the pressure from inside the bottle forced the cork to fly at breakneck speed out of the bottle with a requisite gun-shot pop, after which it hit our ceiling with a loud thud (we’re surprised it didn’t cause a dent). Could the pressure have been an indication that the wine was still fermenting and building up pressure? Help us out, scientist-types (Dr. Vino???)!

After a brief search and rescue mission, we found the cork resting in a bowl of over-ripe peaches. And that was all too appropriate. The semi-sweet Bugey, upon sniff and taste, was all about peaches. Or nectarines, or any orange fleshed stone fruit. And while it may have been peachy in smell and taste, it was not at all peachy or salmon in color, unlike some sparkling rosés we’ve had. This wine was downright pink. And very pretty. Dare we say, pretty in pink? Even the froth had a pink hue to it! We loved looking at this wine. Almost more than we liked drinking it.

Which isn’t to say this isn’t a good wine. It’s a fun wine. It’s yummy. It’s liquefied Jolly Rancher. Apparently it goes well with chocolate (unfortunately we’re on a diet and don’t have any in the house, so we couldn’t test out that claim). But this is not a wine we feel we could drink any old day. This is birthday party wine (grown up birthday party). It’s bachelorette party wine. Yes, this pretty in pink drink is a wine worth having, but we think only from time to time. We’re glad we tried it, but it’s not going to be on our regular play-list.

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Earlier today:

Okay, we’re late in the game here. Still in the office and have yet to crack open the Greek, French and Portuguese wines we purchased for this month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday, hosted by the venerable Dr. Vino. There’s the off-chance we actually won’t have time to participate this month, though we’re working hard to make it happen. In the meantime, our friends at Catavino, Ryan and Gabriella, have already posted their entry. So, while you anxiously await ours, please go read their very informative piece on an interesting sounding Torres wine.

We think you’ll love the Catavino blog and Ryan and Gabriella’s incredible writing. And to top things off, they have impeccable taste in wine — so much so, we’ve asked them to help us out in choosing some wine for our shop. But that’s another story for another day…

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