les vins sont arrivés!
Veronique and friends
Visiting with Veronique Antoine
Hello there! A long time, I know, since last I wrote and put out an offer… My Apologies! I’ve been busy and waiting; waiting and busy.
As some of you know, I traveled to France last June with friends Kathryn Olson and Eric Swikert of Vin2U Wine Group. We were looking for producers whom we might bring representation to here in the Seattle area. We had an amazing (and grueling) eight days of driving around the Ardeche, Beaujolais, Jura, Savoie, and Bugey. We met many lovely people, tasted some amazing wines, and found several producers with whom we hope to work. Stay tuned as wines have finally begun to arrive!
The first of these came in late last month. I am so excited to be able to offer the wines of Veronique Antoine to you!
Kathryn and I visited with Veronique in Bugey, our second day. Bugey is a small region tucked in between the larger Savoie and Jura regions in Eastern France, not far from the Swiss border, in the rolling countryside of the alpine foothills. Most of us know Bugey for the pretty, dancing pink, off-dry, delicate sparkling wine, Bugey-Cerdon. The wine is usually Gamay based, but may also have some Pinot Noir & Mondeuse. Veronique’s Bugey-Cerdon is mostly Gamay Noir. How we found her farm was not with the help of Google and it is edifying to know that there are still places in the world where you still actually have to ask for directions. After several wrong turns and a drive up a forest path, we stopped, took a smoke break and a swig from our bottle of Picon. Re-tracing our steps back to the hamlet of Saint Martin-du-Mont, we enlisted the help of two lovely day-hikers who pointed us in the right direction, up that skinny street there . . . There?
Yes, There!
Where?
There!
O! d’accord! Merci! On-y-va alors!
We arrived and our tire promptly pissssssssssed out its air.
Kathryn exploring the dwelling of a wood nymph; swigging from the Picon; the path where we realized, maybe we had taken a wrong turn
The property is small, consisting of a few hectares of vines, some of which came with the land when Veronique purchased it; others of which she has planted over the last fifteen years. Veronique is short in stature, wirey as fuck, and looks as much like a rock climber, as she does a vigneronne. We’d brought a small bouquet of flowers with us, as a thank you for agreeing to see us. She accepted the flowers with some bemusement, promptly put then on a table, and forgot about them. That’s not to say she wasn’t lovely, but if we had known her, we might have brought her some spare tires for her mountain bike instead. She rides her bike up and down her rows of hillside vines. Passionate about what she does, she was . . . in a straightforward and understated way. When we asked how the current season was going for her, she gave a shrug and pfffft, glancing toward the ground, saying, “on vera . . . (we’ll see)”. When we asked about how things had been going generally, her response was what we heard from most of the vignerons with whom we met: difficult, to say the least. The last two growing seasons had been fraught with spring frosts, summertime hail, and high temperatures, in varying combinations, up and down the Rhone/Burgundy valley.
Veronique’s production was eight hundred cases last vintage, down from the usual twelve hundred due to the weather they experienced in 2021. To give you an idea of how small her production is, Patrick Botex, another tiny producer in Bugey, produces about four thousand cases per year. Our allotment is small and we feel fortunate to have gotten any at all!
The wines themselves, much like their maker, were wirey, taut, and full of light; a pure reflection of the surrounding countryside. The two sparkling Methode Ancestrales were delicate and effervescent with a diamond minerality that sparkled in the sunshine. They were playful and very serious about being playful. I guess what strikes me about all of the wines is how honest they feel to me. Sometimes, you taste a wine, and you can’t tell what its message is because it doesn’t know itself and so how could you get to know it? These wines know themselves, because their maker knows herself. The Chardonnay and Mondeuse were like drinking crushed quartz, their minerality and focus was so strong.
There are four wines available:
Bugey Cerdon, Methode Ancestrale- $30- 100% Gamay, lightly sparkling rosé in the off-dry style of Bugey-Cerdon! Pretty and lively, the perfect warm-up to a meal, or as an accompaniment to a meal with kick, as in spice, as in, Asian, or barbeque!
Sous les Vignes, Methode Ancestrale- $30- 100% Jacquere, another off-dry Methhode-Ancestrale in the same style as the Bugey-Cerdon, so pretty! Zac used this in a pairing with Raclette at l’Oursin. Light and dancing around in a mouthful of stardust. Starlight Starbright!
Bugey Chardonnay- $27- Clean, mountain Chardonnay, fermented in steel, reflecting mountain lakes and green forests on the palette, linear and to the point.
En Beran, Mondeuse- $36 - Fermented in Amphora; the tiny one in the picture! Yes, very small, and indeed very small quantities of this wine are made. This wine, like the Chardonnay, really channels the limestone soils found in this region; high toned, bright and angular; the wine is rounded by the amphora, which gives it a violet flower finish at its back end. If you could let it sit for a year or two, you would be greatly rewarded by your patience. If you can’t wait, I would put it in a decanter for several hours before drinking.
If you’d like any of the wines, please order them here: Cantina Sauvage Orders
You will be invoiced via Square and I will deliver to you! Please provide address, even though I may have it already.
4 bottle minimum order in Seattle, brings me to your door! 6 bottles outside Seattle city limits.