Bubbles in Bugey are celebrating!

Great restaurant owners do not hesitate to put it on their wine list, next to great Champagnes. As a local curiosity of course, but above all because this wine, from the Monts du Bugey, carefully raised by the local wine growers who love their trade, is worth while.

Within a ten year period, the appellation « Vins du Bugey » has grown to about twenty members in all categories; young wine growers who have indestructible faith and love for their vine and their soil.

Listed VDQS (Wines Defined as Superior Quality) until now, they have applied for the AOC label of origin; which should succeed in 2008. Because its price is reasonable, the Montagnieu also has the place of honour on café bars and in the bouchons lyonnais (typical local restaurants).

You will pay between six and eight euros per bottle, to the owner's in towns such as Briord, Montagnieu and Seillonaz for this type of grape such as Altesse, Chardonnay and Mondeuse (at 70%), which gives a very aromatic sparkling wine with a flavour of roasted almond.

Vincent Peillot, the most emblematic of the local wine growers, could talk for ever about this wine, and the reason why we speak about him is because all the restaurant owners and other connoisseurs always quote him as the best, even if he is not the only one.

To savour a good Montagnieu as an aperitif and discover the charms of the Bugey Wines on site, go to Nicolas Serrano, at the restaurant La Cigale d'Or, in Seillonas. He has an illustrious past (Guy Martin from Grand Véfour when he was the chef of the Château de Divonne, Christian Lameloise, les frères Troisgros...) He is kind enough to propose menus from twenty five euros and an interminable Christmas Eve dinner at fifty eight euros. He also proposes another bubbling star of the bugey vineyards: the Cerdon, a true marvel which looks like Champagne with raspberry.

Recipe: Beef cooked "à la plancha" lacquered with Mondeuse of Bugey wine