2015 Marie Thibault ‘La Roue Qui Tourne’ Pet’nat Rosé

Price: $23 
Region: Loire Valley < France 
Grapes: Gamay, Côt
Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Certified organic farming, white clay and limestone soil with a lot of flint, 50 year-old vines, hand harvested, no added SO2 
Winemaker: Marie Thibault

Marie Thibault grew up in the Loire Valley but not in a family of vignerons. But this didn’t stop her from pursuing her passion for wine – she got degrees in biology and oenology and scored an apprenticeship with François Chidaine, one of the pioneers in the natural winemaking in the Montlouis-sur-Loire AOC that has become famous worldwide for Chenin Blanc. She started out on her own just two years later, and now owns three hectares in Azay-le-Rideau, from which she makes tiny quantities of mostly Chenin and Gamay-based wines. This beautiful pink pet’nat is made in the ancestral method, in which you essentially take wine that hasn’t finished fermenting and bottle it. They literally just throw a cap on it, and as the yeast continues to eat the sugar, it produces extra carbon dioxide and that makes the wine lightly fizzy. It is lip-smackingly delicious, dry and earthy and fruity, with fresh minerality and acidity. Like cherry soda for grown-ups. A perfect wine for day-drinking, or starting the party.