Lise et Bertrand Jousset 'Rosé à Lies' Pétillant Naturel

Region: Montlouis < Loire Valley < France

Grapes: Gamay, Grolleau

Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Organic farming; grapes are hand-harvested from 40-year-old organic vines grown on sand and silex soils over limestone; fermented in used barriques; made in the Petillant Naturel style, bottled at under crown cap at 15 grams of sugar before fermentation is complete, finishes fermentation in bottle at less than 5 grams; undisgorged, minimal added SO2; 12.5% ABV

Winemaker: Bertrand & Lise Jousset

• Woman co-owner & co-winemaker - Lise Bertrand!
• Super dry sparkler, less fizzy than Champagne
• Strawberry, raspberry, red currant, and a touch of toast
• Delicate and red fruit-forward, this puts many more expensive bubbles to shame
• For the Champagne lovers on your list

More about Domaine Jousset
Non-interventionist vintners Lise and Bertrand tend their 25 small vine parcels in Montlouis by hand without chemicals.  This is the birthplace of Pétillant Originel, a bubbly style from Montlouis, often called Pétillant Naturel, or Pet’Nat. Pétillant Originel, which won AOC status in 2007, must be absolutely natural, nothing added. It is illegal to add sugar or yeast at any stage of the wine’s production, although both are required in Champagne.  Their approach is simple (and makes you wonder why one would work any other way): “we want to make wines that express their character and their origins, in other words ‘living wines.’ For this we need living soils with great microbial activity and living vineyards with a balanced animal and vegetal life in our parcels. This firmly excludes herbicides that kill the soils, fertilizers that maintain the plant by “feeding-tube” deprived of its natural nourishment, and pesticides that pollute our environment. And for us, no “cooking” in the cellar!  We let our wines make themselves naturally without the use of oenologic products – sometimes a little sulfur and only what’s necessary! Fermentations are with wild yeasts, of course – they are the soul of our wines as they transmit their origins, the terroir and the vintage.”