Bugey

Playing music in the Ain département, over the past couple of years we have taken the opportunity to discover the wines of Bugey.  Last year we visited the Caveau Bugiste in the pretty village of Vongnes.  White wines are often excellent in this appellation, made either from Chardonnay or from the local Roussette cépage which gives its name to their Roussette de Bugey. 


This year we arrived at our music course to be greeted by our host with a magnum of pink fizz.  A demi-sec Cerdon, in fact, which we liked very much.  Later in the week he served a lean, elegant chardonnay from the same cave - I'm drinking a glass as I write.  So on leaving we called in at the caveau of Lingot-Martin not far from the village of Cerdon.  The approach to the vineyards from the higher  ground to the north is dramatic - you wind down the main road towards Cerdon seeing vineyards on the steep valley slopes of the Ain river.  Cerdon is a sub-appellation of Bugey for these sparkling rosés - the reds and whites are plain Bugey.  Red and rosé wines use Gamay grapes - the rosé combined with a local cépage called Poulsard, the red with Pinot Noir.


More about Bugey and its wines at http://www.cc-belley-bas-bugey.com/fr/vins_et_spiritueux.php
and about the village of Ponçin where Lingot-Martin can be found - a very pretty area - at http://www.poncin.fr/accueil.html