Festejar Sparkling Rosé 2021

Festejar Sparkling Rosé 2021

Patrick Bouju

Its beautiful light coral (almost red) color already makes you thirsty, and its freshness hits the mark every time. "To celebrate" is the meaning of festejar in Occitan: this is a clear indication of the use of this natural sparkling rosé wine made from Gamay from Auvergne (with a little Merlot from Côtes-de-Blaye as a minority grape variety), but many others can be found. Its scope is dizzyingly broad, as it is a thirst-quenching wine combined with a complex vintage, superimposing very fine bubbles, a fine and delicious acidity, a touch of spice and white pepper, a slight sweetness, a slight yeasty note and a structuring bitterness. Perfect for an aperitif with friends, perfect for the table, perfect for thirst: an all-terrain vehicle for the greatest joy of all. This semi-dry natural sparkling wine is available in rosé and white. For the rosé, after pressing and settling, the Gamay musts are fermented at low temperature in vats for five to six weeks before being bottled, placed in the cellar on racks for secondary fermentation. Fermentation stops under the effect of pressure and the wine is disgorged by hand, then recapped. Uncork with caution due to its effervescence and drink well chilled.

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Near Billom, the Limagne clermontoise rises eastward to form a hilly area with a mild climate, dominated by volcanic hills. This is the Auvergne Tuscany, so named because of its resemblance to the Italian province. This land of mixed subsistence farming was once covered with vines and was the preferred domain of Gamay d'Auvergne, a robust ancient strain, the origin of dense, deep and fruity wines. This is where Patrick Bouju cultivates and vinifies, on these high-quality volcanic soils and mainly on old vines. The soils vary between basalt, limestone, clay-limestone and pozzolan. Patrick collects and cares for the best terroirs of Puy-de-Dôme, often abandoned, and gives them new life. He also preserves native grape varieties, of which he cultivates a good fifty, and also works as a wine merchant using purchased organic grapes. The current renaissance of the Auvergne vineyard (which was once the third largest in France) owes a lot to Patrick. The fact that he likes to lend a hand to his winegrower friends in France and elsewhere only confirms his image as a model, a leader. His partnerships are famous: with Action Bronson for the A la Natural series, with Jason Ligas in Greece for Sous le Végétal… Patrick practices long macerations, and the wines rest for up to six months after bottling. Very sensitive to sulfites in wines, Patrick has found that his own wines do very well without them. He has also observed that if the grapes are healthy and concentrated, the balance is achieved on its own, regardless of the successive phases a vintage goes through. His noble, chiseled, distinguished, never bland wines are immediately recognizable in the glass. They are straight, clean, precise, often marked by floral notes and a spicy minerality. They also constitute a formidable anthology of the terroirs and ancient vines of Basse-Auvergne and its volcanic soils.