Low Alcohol Wines

Jour de Fête Sparkling Rosé 2019

Marie and Vincent Tricot

You pour it, pour it, pour it again, and you're amazed to have emptied the bottle. This organic, natural sparkling rosé wine doesn't bear this name for nothing. Made using the ancestral method (bottling during fermentation, which completes in the container), Jour de Fête is a seductive natural sparkling wine made from Gamay d'Auvergne that doesn't lend itself to melancholy. It displays a deep, slightly cloudy strawberry-raspberry color that already invites indulgence. On the nose, cherry, raspberry, and the promise of a vinous and concentrated sparkling wine, not just a gurgling experience. It can be described as both gurgling and complex.

The cherry, raspberry, redcurrant and strawberry are confirmed on the palate with a great deal of sweetness and indulgence, a little sugar reminiscent of the raspberry fruit paste from Auvergne, and the slight bitterness of the volcanic soil Gamay in the background. The effervescence is moderate, we also perceive citrus notes (orange, mandarin) and the floral notes are then revealed with a touch of violet. The roundness is pleasant, the freshness is exceptional. Made from Gamays grown on hillsides on volcanic and clay-limestone soils, Jour de fête is truly exceptional and as joyful and festive as its label promises.

To find out more

Among the generation of Auvergne winemakers who, at the dawn of the 21st century, are reviving the vineyards of this beautiful volcanic province of the Massif Central from the ashes using organic and natural methods, Marie and Vincent Tricot are pioneers, and their name is well known to those who have long loved natural wine. After a colorful winemaking journey that took them from Beaujolais to Chile and from Chile to Costières-de-Nîmes, they landed in Auvergne, at the foot of the Puy de Dôme, in the commune of Orcet where they took over Claude Prugnard's vineyard, a land that has not seen the slightest chemical input for thirty years. The estate is located on a hillside on the left bank of the Allier River, in a volcanic clay-limestone area near the vineyards of Châteaugay, Chanturgue, and Corent. They acquired it in 2003 and have since been making wines from Auvergne Gamay, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir, with a little Sauvignon Blanc and Muscat. These rare and sought-after wines are mainly sold directly. They have a straightforward, flamboyant profile and express themselves with as much character as simplicity.

Aubunite Sparkling Red 2016

La Sorga
A blend of 80% Aubunite and about 20% Aramon, with a little Auvergne Gamay and Carignan, grape varieties sourced mostly from the limestone sands around Carcassonne and the rest from the basalt soils of Auvergne. The Aubunite macerates in whole bunches; the other grape varieties are destemmed. The wine is bottled by hand, and disgorgement is performed by Antony himself. Its notes of red fruits and spices will complement an aperitif and will not disappoint a chocolate mousse. Aging potential: five years.
Natural wine with no added sulfites.

Goes with: Desserts, Aperitif

Coince ta bulle Blanc pétillant 2026

Château Frédignac

Coince ta bulle 2026 est un blanc pétillant naturel élaboré à partir de 100 % Sémillon, selon la méthode ancestrale. Issu de sols argilo-calcaires et conduit en agriculture biologique, il est élevé pendant 3 mois en cuve inox, dans un style volontairement frais, léger et très gourmand.

Le nez s’ouvre sur les fleurs blanches, accompagné d’un fruit net et d’une petite touche poivrée qui apporte du relief. En bouche, le vin reste vif, souple et désaltérant, avec une bulle facile et un profil très accessible. Avec ses 10,5 % d’alcool, c’est clairement un pétillant de plaisir, pensé pour l’apéritif et les moments conviviaux.

À servir bien frais, autour de 8 à 10°C. Il accompagne très bien les fruits de mer, la charcuterie, les viandes blanches, les fromages, mais peut aussi fonctionner sur des desserts peu sucrés.

Cuvée 0.72+ (exclusive cuvée) White 2023

De Vini
Vinified without additives or sulfites by Christophe Bosque of De Vini, 0.72+ is an organic and natural dry white wine. It comes straight from the land of Muscadet, the Loire estuary. Without having the appellation (it is classified as Vin de France), it can be considered a Muscadet and drunk as such.

In the vineyard and in the cellar
0.72+ white from De Vini is made from 100% Melon de Bourgogne (another name for the Muscadet grape variety) planted in Maisdon-sur-Sèvre (Loire-Atlantique) on gabbro soils characteristic of the region. Gabbro is a grainy igneous rock resting on a granite subsoil, contributing to the production of splendid, lively and mineral white wines. Gabbro and granite are Christophe Bosque's favorite soils. The wine was aged for one year on lees in buried cement vats (traditional in this region), without any additives.

If you want to know...
An anecdote explains the name of the cuvée: originally, due to a small technical incident during bottling, it did not contain exactly the standard quantity. The error has since been corrected (0.72+ of De Vini is in its fifth vintage).

Tasting
0.72+ white is excellent to drink now or later, well chilled. An elegant acidity mixed with a balancing roundness, a saline and salivating side make 0.72+ an unfailing companion to raw or smoked fish and seafood, especially oysters. This vintage also exists in red.

Learn more about Christophe Bosque and De Vini
De Vini, along with the Vinilibre winery, is the dual activity of Christophe Bosque, originally from Saint-Nazaire. He has always been passionate about wine. We are particularly interested in his local creations, produced from his vineyard of some two hectares and fermented in buried vats in the Nantes style - a true reinvention of Muscadet (outside the appellation) in natural mode.

Gabbro Fondu
After spending years as a merchant, importer, then wine merchant, this former cameraman with a BTS in oenology-viticulture acquired a few plots (two hectares) of Melon de Bourgogne vines in Gorges, in Loire-Atlantique, near Clisson in 2017. The soils there are made up of gabbro on a granite substrate, a pedological configuration specific to the Nantes region and particularly to Clisson. Christophe is full of praise for this type of soil.

Muscadet for the better
Christophe's vintages may come from grapes purchased from the best French terroirs, particularly in Languedoc, but the winemaker retains a special affection for his vines, which he maintains with passion and attention to the terroir. A touch of humor and a sense of pun can be seen on his labels and in his appellations, but in the bottle, they are serious, off-the-beaten-track wines, just the way he likes them.

LP Clarete Red 2021,

Ladidadi/Pinheiro

Clarete ("clairet") lives up to its name with its light, airy tannins. Medium-bodied, it is crisp, vibrant, and lively with refreshing acidity. It is a wine full of red fruits and spices, elegant without being solemn, and therefore suitable for all occasions. This is a blend of red and white grape varieties that represents an ampelographic anthology of the estate, as it brings together 80% red grape varieties (Jaen, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Alfrocheiro) and 20% white grape varieties (Encruzado, Bical, Malvasia, Cerceal and Terrantez). The effect produced by this blend is an increased fluidity of the red wine, which becomes supple and light. The vines grew on granite and clay-sand soils facing south in the hills of Penalva do Castelo, surrounded by oak, pine, olive and chestnut trees. The harvest is manual. The grapes are destemmed and slowly crushed by foot for two days before macerating in stainless steel vats. Fermentation is spontaneous, using indigenous yeasts. Aging is ten months and bottling is done without filtration. No chemical inputs are added to the vineyard or the winery.

To find out more

The duality of the name Ladidadi/Pinheiro is simply due to the fact that this winemaking entity is the result of a friendship: that of Florian Tonello, creator of the Ladidadi Wine brand, wine merchant-DJ-globetrotter who devotes his life to making natural wines known and loved, and Hugo Pinheiro, winemaker at the head of a small estate of two and a half hectares in Penalva do Castelo, district of Viseu, Dão appellation (central Portugal). Together, they decided to produce several vintages of natural wines, obtained through organic farming, manual harvests, fermentation with indigenous yeasts, without filtration or the addition of sulfites, from the emblematic grape varieties of the appellation on an estate planted around thirty years ago, with a small part planted in the 1980s. We therefore find Touriga Nacional as the main grape variety in red, followed by Clarete, Jaen and Encruzado, and in white Malvasia, Cerceal, Bical and Terrantez. Vibrant, lively wines, and a great opportunity to discover Portugal's wine-growing region in natural mode.

BS Blanc de Sumoll White 2020

Partida Creus

Finely macerated, with a superb golden hue vering with orange, BS Blanc de Sumoll is perfect for the table and refined dishes. Vibrant and aromatic, it offers notes of citrus (grapefruit, orange, lemon), rose, peach, apple, quince, garrigue (thyme, rosemary), and quince, with a rather saline finish. It is also mineral with notes of honey, leather, and stone. This still, sunny Blanc de Noirs, made from 100% white Sumoll (a grape variety that has become extremely rare in Catalonia) and produced directly from the press, is a historic cuvée, the first produced by Massimo and Antonella. Classified as Vino de Mesa (table wine), this is a very rare vintage that should not be missed when a few bottles appear.

Find out more

Partida Creus is an important estate, both in terms of wine and history – we are talking here about the history of the vine in Catalonia. Massimo Marchiori and Antonella Gerosa, originally from Piedmont – and even from the Langhe region, where wine is well-known – first pursued careers as architects in Barcelona. But the wine bug bit them, and soon they abandoned the big city and its sophistication for the vineyards of southern Catalonia, in Bonastre in Baix-Penedés. There they found a quantity of abandoned vineyards planted with a dizzying diversity of traditional Catalan grape varieties that they passionately revived to save these varieties – and their wines – from oblivion. On their part, it’s not just a matter of saving heritage, no: it’s a matter of taste and nature. Natural wines, which they will continue to make from now on on these sandy, poor, clay-limestone or clay-gravelly, poor and poorly irrigated lands, where the vines suffer to give their best juice. Massimo and Antonella practice organic, biodynamic, entirely manual and natural viticulture in order to give new life to these wines. Vinyater, sumoll, garrut, monastrell, ull de perdiu, ull de llebre, sumoll, queixal de llop, cariñena, trepat, ceciat parent, maccabeu, parellada, pansé, vinel·lo, bobal, cartoixà vermell or xarel·lo: it is a true conservatory of the native Catalan grape varieties that Partida Creus cares for. Moscatel, Grenache, Merlot, and Cabernet (among others) are also grown here. Few wineries can boast growing so many different grape varieties. The wines reflect this diversity, with winemakers striving to best convey the signature of the soil and the grape variety: single-varietal wines are common among them, alongside extensive blends, all in the styles dear to Catalonia: still wine, "ancestral" sparkling wine, and even vermouth. The bottles themselves are works of art: bare glass, simply marked with two large stenciled initials that denote the cuvée. The wines, fresh, vibrant, lush but always straightforward and impeccably juicy and fruity, breathe life. The arrival of a Partida Creus at the table always elicits cries of satisfaction.

La Chassornade Sparkling White 2021

Fréderic Cossard

This beautiful golden yellow color catches the eye; you pour yourself a small glass and suddenly you wake up. It sparkles, it's fresh, it's full of flavor and joie de vivre, and you could consider La Chassornade a festive wine if you didn't have a furious desire to drink it on any occasion, especially without an excuse or a word from your parents. It is, in short, a magnificent expression of the Aligoté grape variety in sparkling mode: floral, citrusy, taut, fresh, and mineral. It's also a natural sparkling wine that demonstrates the creativity of its winemaker. Aligoté was the first white grape variety in Burgundy—well before Chardonnay—and it deserves to regain its former glory. Vinifying it as a natural sparkling wine isn't a bad idea, quite the opposite: the grape's rounded, pleasant, and fruity notes (lemon and white grapefruit) stand out elegantly. Absolutely delicious. The grapes were harvested near Puligny-Montrachet, from vines that are around forty years old. The harvest is directly pressed, and bottling is done in the clear, without disgorging. Fermentation and aging take place in the bottle for around ten months. Native yeasts, no added sulfites, no additives. Remember to keep the bottle chilled in an upright position for twenty-four hours before tasting so that the lees remain at the bottom.

To find out more
Through his entirely natural work, Frédéric Cossard gives voice to the terroirs and Burgundy wines, undeformed by agricultural chemicals. Having observed, during his years of trading, the existence of harmful wine-growing practices, the winemaker used this counter-example to practice unadulterated viticulture. Thus, he produces vintages of purity and elegance without artifice that are among the most sought-after in Burgundy. Frédéric worked for some time as a wine broker before creating the  domaine de Chassorney with his partner Laure in 1996: initially a few ares of vines in Saint-Romain, Auxey-Duresses and Savigny-lès-Beaune, and currently ten hectares spread across the Nuits-Saint-Georges, Pommard, Volnay, Bourgogne-Hautes-Côtes-de-Beaune and Bourgogne appellations. In 2006, he created his own wine trading house and buys organic grapes to vinify, according to his style and convictions, great vintages such as Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet, Pommard, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Chambolle-Musigny, Vosne-Romanée and several Beaujolais crus. The exercise is not limited to Burgundy, as vintages are made from grapes purchased in the Jura, Languedoc, or elsewhere. At his place, the work of the soil and the vines is done as naturally as possible: regular plowing by horse, no addition of chemical fertilizers or weedkillers. The vines are cared for according to the principles of biodynamics: homeopathic treatments based on essential oils, copper, and sulfur in minimal doses. The harvest is entirely manual, carried out at full maturity, at the end of October. Red or white, classic Burgundies or more atypical or less "regional" bottles, Frédéric's vintages are rare and sought-after wines, which sometimes require waiting.

UGM Qvevris White 2023,

Frédéric Cossard

With UGM Qvevris White 2023, Frédéric Cossard offers a captivating natural white, made from a unique blend of Grenache Blanc, Muscat, and Ugni Blanc. Grown at the foot of Mont Ventoux on clay-limestone soils, these organic grapes are then vinified in Burgundy according to the winemaker's exacting principles.

Vinification in qvevri for a vibrant and expressive white

This wine is made with a no additives approach, with total respect for the fruit and the terroir. After a direct press, it is aged in buried amphorae (qvevris), an ancestral method which promotes gentle oxygenation and preserves a great aromatic purity. This unusual vinification process gives the wine a subtle balance between tension and roundness, with a texture that is both silky and invigorating.

An aromatic and indulgent white

The nose immediately seduces with its expressive notes of ripe white fruits, enhanced by a delicate floral touch. On the palate, the attack is gourmet and ample, carried by a beautiful liveliness which prolongs the tasting with a fresh and persistent finish. The combination of the natural acidity of Muscat and the elegance of Grenache Blanc creates a harmonious and luminous wine, perfect for awakening the taste buds.

Food Pairings and Aging Potential

Served between 8 and 10°C, UGM Qvevris White 2023 pairs wonderfully with cooked fish, roasted poultry or white meats. Ideal to drink today on its freshness, it can also be kept for 5 to 10 years, evolving towards more complex and textured notes. A white with character, natural and vibrant, which will surprise lovers of lively wines.

My Sweet Navine White 2013

Les Vignes de Babass Dervieux

A small bottle but a great wine! A sweet white made from 100% Chenin, My Sweet Navine is produced from late harvests on the schist plot where the estate's other Chenins are also grown. A delicate amber color, with notes of citrus and candied fruit on the nose. On the palate, there is a surprising freshness despite the residual sugar: this is explained by the lack of sorting, as the grapes are at varying stages of ripeness. We thus benefit from green berries, ripe berries, and varying degrees of noble rot. and a light sparkle which gives way to a beautiful length, always with notes of candied fruit.
Natural wine without added sulfites.

Clef à Molette Blanc 2021,

Domaine de l'Octavin
Lots of charm, yellow citrus and white flowers, and a clean, saline finish for this Clé à Molette, so named because it is, naturally, made 100% from the local grape variety called Molette (hence the label), harvested at the Trichon estate in Lhuis (Bugey), this wine is produced biodynamically on clay-limestone soils. The grapes are pressed directly; The must ferments and matures in vats for nine months.

Find out more
“You don’t need anything,” says Alice Bouvot, winemaker at Domaine de l’Octavin, “just grapes that are happy in their own skin.” Everything is said in favor of natural wine; it’s a perfect description. Created in 2005, Domaine d’Alice is located in Arbois, in the wine-growing Jura region, often described as the most organic vineyard in France. The practice of making – among other things – oxidative wines is a good preparation for natural wine, as this type of wine does not allow any chemical additives and especially no sulfites. It’s a secret of this magnificent region. Originally spread over two hectares, the estate, managed entirely biodynamically (Demeter) since 2010, has expanded through the gradual acquisition of plots and now covers seven hectares.
An accomplished musician and passionate music lover, Alice intends to apply her musical sensitivity to the wines she makes. She draws a parallel between the technical perfection of conventional wines, which risks excluding feeling, while "a musician who does not know music theory and plays with his guts creates emotion." For her, living wine is like this: instinctive, improvised, emotional. Introduced to natural wine by Stéphane Planche, sommelier at chef Jean-Paul Jeunet in Arbois, she will faithfully follow this path. The sometimes whimsical titles of her vintages are inspired sometimes by musical art (Dorabella, Zerline), sometimes by the numerous plots of land that make up her vineyard (En Curon, Les Corvées, En Poussot, etc.), and do not disdain a pun from time to time. Likewise, the labels adorned with happy and salacious little gnomes are a signature of the estate. As for the grape varieties, they are the classics of the Jura - Poulsard, Trousseau, Pinot Noir for the reds, and Chardonnay, Savagnin for the whites. Alongside her Arbois wines, Alice has created a business of "on the vine" grapes (Ecocert certified) with her winegrower friends from the region. Natural, committed, joyful and highly drinkable, the wines of Alice Bouvot are all the more coveted as the vintages, produced in plot-by-plot mode, appear, disappear and reappear depending on the vintage and inspiration.

M&M is a delightful red wine made from Mediterranean grape varieties, where fruit dominates with notes of cherry, raspberry, and garrigue. The palate is supple, indulgent, and particularly easy to drink, with a lovely freshness that invites a second glass. A spontaneous cuvée, true to Jean Louis Pinto's free spirit.

Winemaking

Manual harvesting, fermentation with indigenous yeasts, gentle extraction, and tank aging to preserve the fruit's vibrancy. Unfined, unfiltered, and made with minimal sulfur.

Weingarten Blanc 2024

Domaine Einhart

Under the guidance of Domaine Einhart in Alsace, the Weingarten cuvée embodies the delicacy of a Sylvaner expertly crafted on a clay-limestone terroir. Vinified with certified organic methods and without oenological artifice, this natural white wine expresses a beautiful purity of fruit, balanced by a fresh and direct structure. Here, the humblest grape variety flourishes fully on the most generous soils.

The winemaking process involves a pre-fermentation cold maceration (12 to 14 °C) for 24 hours, promoting aromatic expression without extracting undesirable tannic compounds. The subsequent direct pressing produces a clear and delicate juice, which is then aged in stainless steel tanks for 10 months, preserving all the wine's vibrancy. The estate relies on spontaneous fermentation using indigenous yeasts, in full respect of the grape and its ecosystem.

Upon tasting, Weingarten 2024 reveals a pale color with green reflections. The nose is vibrant: white flowers, herbaceous notes, and a hint of exotic fruits. On the palate, it is elegance itself: a full body yet always held by a vertical freshness. A slight, well-controlled bitterness on the finish prolongs the pleasure and makes you want more.

Ideal as an aperitif, this wine also lends itself to more daring pairings: Thai cuisine, spicy dishes, seafood, or tender-fleshed poultry. An expressive, versatile, and honest cuvée, to be enjoyed now or cellared for a few years.

Côtillon des dames White 2022

Jean-Yves Péron

Côtillon des Dames is a dry white wine from Jean-Yves Péron, organic and natural, from Savoie. In Vin de France, it is one of this winemaker's flagship vintages, made from several grape varieties in order to precisely control the evolution of the juice for each vintage and balance the wine according to each variety.

Vinification

Jean-Yves Péron's Côtillon des Dames is made with a majority of Jacquère, harvested at peak maturity, with Altesse and Roussanne as complementary grape varieties. All these vines grow on different terroirs: schist and limestone, limestone scree in Fréterive, mica schist in Albertville. The grapes are vinified separately and blended approximately two months before bottling. Depending on the variety, the maceration will be carbonic or not and of different durations. The average punching down is two weeks to two months. The aging is one year in 300-liter barrels.

Tasting

Great finesse characterizes Côtillon des Dames, a wine of great aromatic complexity, elegant and fruity, with a superb length on the palate. The winemaker has done everything to preserve the aroma and typicity of the Jacquère grape variety and the length and maturity of the Altesse-Roussanne duo.

Learn more about Jean-Yves Péron

Jean-Yves Péron is a talented embodiment of the organic, biodynamic, and natural renaissance of the Savoyard vineyard, which is based on varied soils and numerous indigenous grape varieties (Jacquère, Altesse, Mondeuse, etc.). At his Chevaline winery in the Bauges region, he vinifies grapes from his plots in Conflans, near Albertville, and Fréterive, in the Isère valley.

High-altitude biodynamics

Jean-Yves Péron's work follows the principles of minimal intervention. On narrow and steep surfaces, his mountain vines in micro-plots, worked by hand, do not receive any synthetic products, Jean-Yves preferring horsetail and nettle manure. All of Jean-Yves Péron's wines are sulfite-free, made from hand-harvested grapes, vinified in whole bunches and foot-trodden in the vat. For all vintages, the free-run and press are blended, then aged on lees for at least one year, in two- or three-wine barrels, amphorae or tuns, before final blending. They must be stored at a temperature below 18°C. No sulfites are added, or as little as possible, and the wines are not fined or filtered.

Italian-Savoyard trade

Since 2011, a trading activity has allowed Jean-Yves Péron to buy the harvest from neighboring organic winegrowers and to collaborate with winegrowers from Northern Italy: this is the I Vicini series, which allows him to diversify the terroirs and deepen his experiences in winemaking and aging.

Night Potion Skin Contact White 2021,

Clos Lentiscus

Night Potion Skin Contact is an organic and natural dry white wine certified CCPAE (Catalan Council for Organic Agriculture) and biodynamic, produced by Clos Lentiscus in the Baix-Penedés region (Catalonia).

Vinification

Produced on the limestone soils of the Garraf Natural Park, Night Potion Skin Contact is made using skin maceration, hence its name and its solid, structured yet velvety character. It is made from 100% native Catalan grapes, xarel lo, and is vinified in terracotta containers.

Tasting

Pleasant, pleasant, and adaptable to all occasions, Night Potion Skin Contact is a wine that goes with everything. Its minerality is matched only by its freshness, so there's no need to think about it any longer: let's quickly open this bottle to appreciate its all-terrain qualities, its controlled acidity, and its aromatic charm. It will pair well with tapas, raw, cooked, or smoked fish and seafood. If you want to know more about the delicious still or sparkling wines of this Catalan region, you can also visit the neighbors, at Partida Creus.

Learn more about Clos Lentiscus

In Sitges, Catalonia, in the Penedès appellation, Clos Lentiscus is an organic and natural wine estate located in the heart of the Garraf Natural Park. In a superb landscape of Mediterranean greenery, Manel Avinyo, nicknamed "the Bubbleman", his brother Joan and his daughter Núria specialize in cavas, sparkling wines made using the traditional method, and also make some still wines, all biodynamically, without added additives or sulfites.

History of Clos Lentiscus

The family has been established here since at least the 14th century. When the two brothers took over the estate, organic, biodynamic and additive-free winemaking replaced conventional practices, allowing this beautiful property to regain its former prestige: in the 19th century, its wines were sold in France and as far away as the Americas.

The Clos Lentiscus style

Purity, elegance and a crisp minerality characterize the organic and natural wines of Clos Lentiscus. This Catalan estate also produces still wines. The grape varieties are traditionally Catalan: Sumoll, Ull de Llebre, Xarel-lo, Cartoixà Vermell, Cariñena, and especially Malvasia from Sitges, accompanied by Tempranillo and Muscat from Alexandria. The vines are old, sometimes centuries old. No synthetic additives are used in the vineyard, where operations are dictated by the lunar phases. Pollination is facilitated by the presence of beehives, whose honey sometimes supports the secondary fermentation of the grapes.

Vin paillé Red 2012

Marie and Vincent Tricot

Marie and Vincent Tricot's Vin de paille is undoubtedly a curiosity: it's a sweet wine made from 100% Auvergne Gamay, entirely organic and natural, made like a Vin de paille from the Jura. The harvest is dried on straw in an attic before pressing. We're not used to Gamay vinified this way, or even red wine vinified this way.

It's an experiment, but the result more than justifies the boldness. Drying on straw concentrates the sugar in the grape berries and accentuates the flavors. Only a drop remains in each berry, but what a drop! Sweet, caressing, syrupy, complex, this Vin de paille is a delight. Its color is not a pure red but an amber, and the nose is a veritable basket of slightly jammy fruits: plum, prune, raisins, strawberry. It is possible that a refermentation takes place in the bottle, which can give a sparkling attack to this wine, but it disappears quickly. On the palate, a delicious sweetness, lots of strawberry and pleasantness. Very easy to drink.

To find out more

Among the generation of Auvergne winemakers who, at the dawn of the 21st century, are resurrecting the vineyards of this beautiful volcanic province of the Massif Central in organic and natural ways, Marie and Vincent Tricot are pioneers, and their name is well known to those who have long loved natural wine. After a varied winegrowing journey that took them from Beaujolais to Chile and from Chile to Costières-de-Nîmes, they landed in Auvergne, at the foot of the Puy de Dôme, in the commune of Orcet where they took over Claude Prugnard's vineyard, a land that had not seen the slightest chemical input for around thirty years. The estate is located on a hillside, on the left bank of the Allier, in a volcanic clay-limestone area neighboring the vineyards of Châteaugay, Chanturgue and Corent. They acquired it in 2003 and, since then, have been making wines from Auvergne Gamay, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, with a little Sauvignon Blanc and Muscat. These rare and sought-after wines are mainly sold directly. They have a straight and flamboyant profile, and express themselves with as much character as simplicity.

Magnum XL Xarel lo Ancestral Sparkling White 2014

Partida Creus
With a few years of maturation further reinforcing its character while smoothing out the nuances, this smoky, deep, full-bodied, mineral, and explosive sparkling wine is a true invitation to celebrate. The nose offers aromas of ripe white fruits—apple, pear, white peach—followed by mineral notes on the palate that frame yeasty touches reminiscent of buttery pastries and fresh bread. Beautiful, straightforward, saline acidity. Very elegant, XL Xarel lo Ancestral is highly drinkable and enjoyable. Made from the native Catalan grape variety xarel lo, harvested by hand and pressed directly, it is fermented in stainless steel vats using indigenous yeasts and finished fermenting in bottles on fine lees for a minimum of ten months, without the slightest addition of sulfites.

Find out more
Partida Creus is an important estate, both in terms of wine and history – we are talking here about the history of the vine in Catalonia. Massimo Marchiori and Antonella Gerosa, originally from Piedmont – and even from the Langhe region, where they know a lot about wine – first pursued careers as architects in Barcelona. But the wine bug bit them, and soon they abandoned the big city and its sophistication for the vineyards of southern Catalonia, in Bonastre in Baix-Penedés. There they find a quantity of abandoned vineyards planted with a dizzying diversity of traditional Catalan grape varieties that they passionately revive to save these varieties – and their wines – from oblivion. For them, it is not just a matter of heritage rescue, no: it is a matter of taste and nature. Of natural wines, which they will never stop making from now on on these sandy, poor, clay-limestone or clay-gravel soils, poor and poorly irrigated, where the vines suffer to give their best juice. Massimo and Antonella practice organic, biodynamic viticulture, entirely manual and natural in order to give new life to these wines. Vinyater, sumoll, garrut, monastrell, ull de perdiu, ull de llebre, sumoll, queixal de llop, cariñena, trepat, subirat parent, maccabeu, parellada, pansé, vinel·lo, bobal, cartoixà vermell or xarel·lo: Partida Creus is a veritable conservatory of native Catalan grape varieties. It also grows moscatel, grenache, merlot and cabernet (among others). Few wineries can boast growing so many different grape varieties. The wines reflect this diversity, with the winemakers striving to best convey the signature of the soil and the grape variety: single-variety wines are common among them, alongside extensive blends, all in the styles dear to Catalonia: still wine, "ancestral" sparkling wine, and even vermouth. The bottles themselves are works of art: bare glass, simply marked with two large stenciled initials that denote the vintage. The wines, fresh, vibrant, lush yet always straightforward and impeccably juicy and fruity, exude life. The arrival of a Partida Creus at the table always elicits cries of satisfaction.