Crémant d'Alsace is the appellation for white and rosé Sparkling wines from the Alsace wine region in northeastern France. Introduced in August 1976, the appellation now accounts for about a quarter of the region's production, or about 45 million bottles per year, up from 31 million in 2009. Outside of Champagne (240km to the west), it is the dominant French sparkling wine appellation, with more than half of all crémant production. The cooperatives are the most important players, with Wolfberger alone producing 6 to 7 million bottles.
But many of the region's most prestigious estates produce sparkling wines. As with all French Crémant appellations, the traditional method is used to make Crémant d'Alsace. The wines must spend a minimum of nine months maturing on their lees to ensure a certain level of complexity. This ageing on the lees gives the wines a toasty, nutty, sometimes flinty Character.
Mainly cultivated in the Languedoc region, carignan originates from Spain. Because of its very resistant branches, it is often called hardwood. Its bunches are quite large. They are compact and winged with a lignified stalk. The berries are spherical in shape and take on a bluish-black colour. Carignan has a total of 25 approved clones, the best known of which are 274, 65 and 9. The carignan buds at the beginning of June and is protected from spring frosts. It does not reach maturity until the third period. Also, this grape variety needs warmth and sunshine. It appreciates dry and not very fertile soils. Carignan vines can live for more than 100 years. Those that are more than 30 years old produce a better wine. This wine is well coloured. It is generous and powerful at the same time. Pepper, cherry, blackberry, banana, raspberry, almond, prune and violet are some of the aromas that this grape variety gives off.
sparkling wines from the region of Crémant d'Alsace go well with generally quite well with dishes of shellfish, poultry or appetizers and snacks such as recipes of baeckeoffe with fish, pad thai or twists with anchovies.
On the nose in the region of Crémant d'Alsace often reveals types of flavors of citrus fruit, red fruit or earth and sometimes also flavors of microbio, tree fruit or strawberries. In the mouth in the region of Crémant d'Alsace is a powerful with a nice vivacity and a fine and pleasant bubble.
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How’s the weather been this year? Awful. ‘La nature m’écoeure’, one of my wine-growing friends posted on Facebook on 8 April, having been out to look at the frost-crippled shoots on his vines that morning: ‘Nature disgusts me’. It takes a lot to make a wine-grower feel that. He wasn’t alone. Jeremiads echo around the northern hemisphere as 2021 closes. It’s been the year of all the miseries. None suffered more horribly than the growers of Germany’s Ahr valley, where floodwaters caused by the fou ...
Inside the Decanter magazine July 2022 issue: FEATURES Fuller-bodied rosés: proud to be pink, Elizabeth Gabay MW Can rosé wines really age?, Elizabeth Gabay MW 10 reasons to drink English sparkling wine, Susy Atkins Decanter guide to picnicking for wine lovers, Chris Losh Piedmont Nebbiolo guide: the latest releases, Aldo Fiordelli Winemaker profile: Sam Kaplan, Jonathan Cristaldi in Napa Valley LEARNING Wine wisdom: Expert tips to help you on your journey through wine Read the new issue in full ...
