Grape Spotlight: Bugey Cerdon AOP with Cellier Lingot Martin

Bugey is a winegrowing region in the Ain administrative department of eastern France, in the mountainous areas just south of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) and the border with Switzerland. Bugey is most often associated with Savoie as they are close geographically and produce similar wine styles.  Bugey is a very cool climate region and the vineyard area covers a patchwork of communes in the Ain, with the majority of the vineyard area around the town of Belley. Another cluster, further north and more-or-less contiguous with the vineyard area of the sparkling Bugey Cerdon lies just southwest of Bourg-en-Bresse. 

Vineyards in this Cerdon cru are divided between two key slopes: one immediately west of the village itself, the other a little way to the south. These steep, southeast-facing slopes, with their sunny aspect and free-draining soils, are perfect for ripening the grapes.  The vines not only enjoy prolonged exposure to the sunshine; their southeasterly slant means they receive the gentler morning rays rather than the harsher afternoon sun. This, in turn, allows the grapes to ripen more leisurely and retain a certain acidity at harvest, when flavors peak.

Courtesy of Vineyards.com

The Cerdon AOP involves exclusively sparkling rosé wines made from the Gamay and Poulsard grape varieties using the "méthode ancestrale". This is the oldest known method of producing sparkling wine, where primary fermentation is halted before completion and the wine is bottled to finish fermenting, trapping carbon dioxide for bubbles without adding sugar or yeast and without disgorgement. 

Cellier Lingot Martin is located in Poncin, in the Ain department, just a few kilometers from the village of Cerdon. The winery is renowned for producing Cerdon AOP  wines. We received two of these through the Hopwine, the SEC and Intense. Both of these are made using Gamay and the "méthode ancestrale". The Lingot Martin NV Cerdon Méthode Ancestrale Classic Sec shows a dark pink wine with an anticipated fruit forward profile of strawberries and raspberries.  The Lingot Martin NV Cerdon Méthode Ancestrale Intense is darker in appearance with more jammy notes and a little sweeter.  Both are very refreshing wines perhaps as an apéritif or even as dessert with an apple, pumpkin, or cherry pie?