Just in time for spring and summer sipping, here’s a fab and fizzy “Bubbleista Approved” wine pick: the 2019 Cerdon Renardat-Fâche rosé!
This wine is casually known as a “Bugey” wine, which is pronounced the same way as that word you use to describe your snooty rich Auntie.
FYWI (*for your wine information), Bugey is a tiny wine making region/AOC—a mere 170 hectares—in the Eastern part of France.
Once part of the Burgundy region, this area produces a lot of still wines using grape varietals including “Gamay, Poulsard (a grape from Northern Jura), Roussette, Mondeuse (both from Savoie) and Chardonnay.
The “region’s star wine,” however, is the Cerdon Méthode Ancestrale wine—off-dry, pink bubbles made by spontaneous, (but incomplete) fermentation. Which brings us to my wine pick!
With a warm weather-friendly ABV of just 8%, the delicious, lightly fizzy 2019 Cerdon Renardat-Fâche rosé has a delicate fresh-picked-red-fruit sweetness that was so truly super delightful when I tried it for the first time a few weeks ago!
As for pairing tips, the natural thought is to couple it with moderately sweet desserts such as sorbet, sweet crêpes, petit fours, or fruit tarts…
However I think this would be PERFECT with spicy foods—think Indian food (hellos spicy samosas and chili infused curries), jerk chicken, and even boiled crawfish. The finessed, delicate sweetness and low alcohol content will help contain and balance the heat, and the light effervescence keeps the palate from being overpowered.
Plus, with a price tag around $20, this is a bottle that’s perfect to drink hanging out by the lake, on a picnic, for entertaining, and even beachside (poured in a Corksicle to keep it chilled and glass-free sand, of course).
If you can’t find this particular brand, no worries: just ask your favorite local wine shop for a sparkling Rosé from the Bougie—I mean, BUGEY (ha)—region and you’ll be good to go! Cheers to a great week, bubbly lovers (and you rich aunties, too!)