An all too easy to love Pet-Nat from Bugey-Cerdon (although it’s too dry to officially qualify for Bugey Cerdon status). It’s a naturally lightly sparkler with hints of raspberry and alpine fruits with just a hint of spice on the dry finish. Fresh and fun, it goes down too easily. Enjoy with ripe, soft cheeses, but you can play around with pairings because it works with so many foods. It’ll go well with everything from fried rice and sweet and sour chicken to fresh salads with spinach, strawberry, and walnuts, to your favorite weekend brunch fare. About: Bugey, an Alpine hamlet in eastern France, might possibly be the wine world’s best kept secret. Halfway between Lyon and Geneva, Switzerland, Bugey is so small that it even eludes most French oenophiles’ radars. Often lumped in with neighboring Savoie because of its size—which itself is relatively obscure and often grouped with the larger Jura region—Bugey produces an eclectic array of elegant, aromatic, and high-acid, low- alcohol wines that tend to travel no farther than local dinner tables. But, there’s good news for treasure hunters. Since earning its AOC status in 2009, these off-beat and affordable wines are slowly making their way to the U.S. Amid a patchwork of forests and farms, Bugey’s vineyards thrive in the crisp mountain air and clay-limestone soils of the Jura foothills. Steep roads wind through Bugey’s 63 provinces and 500 hectares of vines. The region is largely rural, though it is home to a network of rivers and railways that have brought winemaking know-how from its neighbors. Truly at a crossroads, Bugey is bordered by Beaujolais to the west, Savoie to the east, Jura and Burgundy to the north, and Rhône to the south. It borrows grapes and influence from each, but makes wines that are all its own, including its most famous, Bugey-Cerdon, which wine writer Jon Bonné has referred to as “the happiest wine on earth.”