Patrick Bottex Rose La Cueille Bugey-Cerdon NV

Profile & Story

Patrick and Catherine Bottex (now joined by son Carl) have farmed 5.66 ha of rocky limestone-and-clay slopes above the Ain River in La Cueille, a high-altitude hamlet in the Bugey appellation between Savoie, the Jura and Burgundy, since 1991; the estate is imported to the US by Kermit Lynch. "La Cueille" is a blend of 90% Gamay and 10% Poulsard made by methode ancestrale: hand-harvested and direct-pressed, it ferments naturally in tank and is bottled partway through fermentation; roughly two months later fermentation halts naturally, leaving about 40-60 g/L residual sugar, and the wine is disgorged, filtered and recorked.