As a former computer scientist, Jean was always interested in wine and made a little bit of wine on the side. After deciding to study enology, he took over 3.5 hectares and started to farm it organically. After the first project with two partners failed, Jean did it his own way and was inspired by the god of natural wine Pierre Overnoy in Jura. Now he owns about 7 hectares of relatively old vines with ages between 40 and 100 years. He is clearly leading the way for the resurgence of Auvergne as a wine region in France.
Although Jean owns a lot of the slightly different Gamay d’Auvergne, he uses the younger Beaujolais Gamay grapes for the bubbles, as they are more productive. They are left to ferment on the skins just for a short amount of time, and then the juice continues for 8 days until it is bottled. Then they spend a few weeks in racks and are turned to slowly move the deposit to the neck of the bottle before the manual disgorgement. Only a couple of bottles are usually allocated, so enjoy it while it lasts. It won’t be very long but will have aromas of peach and strawberry with a good enough edge to keep it interesting. It’s so good you don’t need food with it, but will go well as an aperitif or with sweets.