70% Gamay/30% Poulsard. The Renardats are 7th-generation vignerons of mainly méthode ancestrale Cerdon du Bugey wines in the tiny village of Mérignat in northern Bugey. They farm 13 hectares of Gamay and Poulsard biodynamically (certified) in these high, rolling, wooded, steep hills of poor, rocky, clay-limestone soils. The fruit is harvested by hand, gently pressed and naturally fermented at very cold temperatures in steel tanks. At around 6% alcohol, the wine is bottled and slowly continues its fermentation in the cold cellar. Each bottle is then emptied by vacuum into a pressurized tank; the wine in tank is filtered to remove most of the remaining yeasts and rebottled with a touch of sulfur. The bottles continues to ferment to about 8% alcohol and are disgorged in December of the vintage. Final residual sugar is usually about 60 grams/liter of residual sugar. Starting in 2024, the wine is a dual-vintage blend. 

It is worth noting that while the vinification process sounds complex or technical for a “simple” wine, it is the only way to prevent refermentation and exploding bottles with méthode ancestrale wine with significant residual sugar. Back in the olden days, gargantuan quantities of sulfur were the only way to try to manage that problem; the current generation of Renardats chose a non-sulfur-driven path and developed their method over time.