Think pink bubbly Gamay

2008 Vin de Table Petillant Pink Boules, Domaine Maupertuis

One becomes a Stoic, but one is born an Epicurean. (Denis Diderot)

I am so happy when I taste a wine to get less than I want. This one, thank goodness, hasn’t been to charm school at all.

Whether grown in volcanic hills called puys, in Limagne, or on the hills (domes) on the eastern edge of the Massif Central, Auvergne wines are made with the Gamay variety, which has been cultivated in the region for centuries. Auvergne is slap bang in the centre of France (nearest town of note Clermont Ferrand in the department Puy-de -Dome).  the Appellation of the region is Cotes d’Auvergne DOC but Jean does not seek to classify his wines as this, hence his wines are classed as ‘ Vin de Table’.  This sparkling wine is classed a Vin de Table (NB there is no mention of sparkling or petillant on the label).

The vineyards are on 3.5 hectares of parcels of vines spread over two communes (Saint-Georges- Allier and La Roche Noire).  Although not of a family of winemakers (he was an IT engineer), Jean had a passion for wine and decided to take over the vineyard in 1996 from a family who had been renting and farming it for many generations.
Grape variety is 100% Gamay. and the age of the vines is between 40 and 100 yrs old. Vineyard practices are organic, and minimal intervention is the byword here.  The vines grow on an outcrop of marl with limestone that overlooks the huge fertile plain of the Limagne.

The alcoholic fermentation lasts eight days - only wild yeasts are used. Temperature is 15°-20°, then it is reduced to 6°-7° to stop the process. Bottling takes place before the first fermentation has finished. Fermentation (now in bottle) is started up again and ends at a temperature of at 10°-12°. The bottles spend some weeks on the ‘pupitre’ (rack in which the bottles are turned regularly) in order to bring the deposit to the neck of the bottle.  Degorgement is manual.

Pink grapefruit colour, initial aromas of barley sugar, mango and peach skin, sweet and sour flavours on the palate, nice notes of astringency and crushed minerals on the finish.Take the Bulles by the short and pointies. It is a cute Pet Bul made au natural (natch) with wild yeasts and (second) fermentation finishing in the bottle with manual disgorgement with no malolactic, no filtering, no fining and no sulphur. Dare we say that this wine has vulcanicity? We daren’t.