NV Patrick Bottex - Bugey Cerdon La Cueille (750ml)

Patrick and Catherine Bottex, now joined by their son Carl, farm five hectares of rocky limestone slopes above the Ain River in La Cueille, a high-altitude hamlet near the medieval town of Poncin. They have tended this land since 1991, in the Bugey, a small and often overlooked wine region tucked between Savoie, the Jura, and Burgundy on the western edge of the Alps, an area first cultivated by Romans and later developed by medieval monks, though it did not receive its own AOC until 2009.

Cerdon is one of three crus within the Bugey appellation and the only one devoted entirely to sparkling wine. La Cueille is built from a blend of Gamay and Poulsard, harvested by hand and pressed directly before a natural fermentation begins in tank. When roughly sixty grams of residual sugar remain, the wine is chilled to halt fermentation and bottled under crown cap, where it continues fermenting spontaneously through the winter using the traditional méthode ancestrale, a technique that predates Champagne's own process.

The result is a low-alcohol, deep pink sparkling wine bursting with alpine strawberry, rose petal, and red currant, balanced by a touch of natural sweetness and lively acidity. It makes a wonderful aperitif and pairs nicely with light desserts, fresh fruit, or spicy Southeast Asian cuisine.