At a party in France recently my brother-in -law introduced me to a wine I had never heard of before: Bugey Rouge. Sylvain Bois produces this wine from his small estate near the village of Béon in the Savoie region of France. Savoie borders Switzerland and you can feel the resemblance between the local wines and Swiss wines here. The vines are grown in a cool mountain climate reminiscent of Switzerland.
Sylvain's Bugey Rouge is made from the Mondeuse black grape from the locality. The 2006 is a particularly fine example: it is mature and ready to be drunk now. The wine has its own particular style represented by the grape variety and the wine making tradition. Mondeuse noir is not grown it the rest of France as far as I know.
It is a wine for drinking with food rather than slugging back. We drank it with venison. The wine is rich in red fruit tastes, with a hint of spice and the tannin has now softened. It had long length on the palate and also had all the complexity and concentration which makes a good wine.
The Mondeuse grapes are grown on calcareous clay soils which I am certain add to the complexity of tastes.
The tannin and acidity will help these wines to keep and mature for a number of years.
Not only is this very good wine, it is also excellent value for money. You can buy it for about 5 Eur a bottle direct from the cave. It is well worth paying the postage for delivery if you are unable to visit. This wine has individual character. You can tell that the producer has respect for the soil, his vines, the climate and of course his wine.
Once again my brother-in-law has come up "trumps". I am hoping for another surprise the next time I visit.
http://www.ocavo.com/accueil.php?viti=86
http://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-savoie
http://fringewine.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/mondeuse-noire-bugey-france.html
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