Facher than the speed of light

Renardat-Fache Bugey Cerdon (Ain) – Intense strawberry, with one of the best balancing acts between acid, fruit, and sugar I’ve encountered under this label. Fresher for the lack of a trans-Atlantic trip? A better vintage? Or just an artifact of the environmental bonus multiplier of drinking it in Paris, rather than in a Boston suburb? Well…does it matter? Whatever the cause, this is the best bottle of this wine I’ve ever tasted, and I have consumed a lot. (11/09)

à la Turque

Rondeau Bugey Cerdon (Ain) – Pure strawberry lifted by raspberry/cranberry volatility. Fun, fun, fun, and no one’s T-Bird is getting taken away. (4/11)

La Fache

Renardat-Fache Bugey Cerdon (Ain) – A cellar accident…this bottle is, I think, at least two years old. Maybe three. Does it reward aging? As pretty much anyone could predict: no. Thin, acid-dominated, not actively unpleasant but no more than a shadow of what it was. Hopefully, I haven’t accidentally aged any more bottles of this. (1/11)

Chocolate chip cookie Cerdon

Renardat-Fache Bugey Cerdon (Ain) – How many more notes does the internet need on this wine? It’s pure joy. Buy it. Buy cases of it. Buy pallets of it. (3/10)

Are you Cerdon?

Renardat-Fache Bugey Cerdon (Ain) – Purple nurple in liquid form. Craves salty pork, craves crisp vegetables, craves a humid afternoon, craves a parched desert, desires everything, desires nothing at all. The caveat? It’s getting expensive; the fun was less burdened at $15 or less than it is, now, but pushing into the mid-twenties it’s not entirely untrammeled. (7/09)

Renardat-Fache Bugey Cerdon (Ain) – See the previous note, but with more strawberry dust and Pink Lady apple skin. (7/09)

Face the Fache

Renardat-Fache Bugey Cerdon (Ain) – There are only so many ways to say “soda pop for adults,” but it’s still the best characterization. More so here, perhaps, because the wine’s sweetness and fruit are slightly more candied than normal. It’s still a more vibrant and present wine than the more mineral-driven Bottex, and for my tastes just a wee bit better, but the gap is smaller in this release that it sometimes has been. (4/09)

Renardat-Fache Bugey Cerdon (Ain) – Second note, same as the first. (4/09)

Are you Cerdon?

Renardat-Fache Bugey Cerdon (Ain) – After dabblings and dalliances with other similarly-constructed pink sparklers, it’s nice to come home to the best of the bunch. More strawberry and less grey minerality than I remember, perhaps, but the marriage of bursting fruit and delicate sweetness is just…well, it’s better here than elsewhere. I’m not a huge fan of $22/per, which is why I’m only an occasional imbiber these days, but that has nothing to do with the wine’s quality. (4/09)

Facial injections

Bottex Bugey-Cerdon “La Cueille” (Ain) – Harder-edged than the last few years, with more of the foundational granite showing and less of the sprightly, fizzy strawberry; but then, this was always a more restrained expression of this appellation even in the best of year. In truth, it’s very slightly serious. And that just can’t be right. (7/08)

Stanley Bartucci

Bartucci 2004 Bugey Cerdon (Ain) – Lurid strawberry essence, bursting with geraniums. A little heavier than I’m used to, but still good. (4/06)