The AOC Bourgogne mousseux concerns only Sparkling red wines from the Burgundy vineyards. The 600 hectares of its production area are spread over communes in four departments: 54 communes in Yonne, 91 in Côte-d'Or, 154 in Saône-et-Loire and 85 in Rhône. The continental Climate of the vineyards is influenced by the Mediterranean from the South and the Atlantic from the west. The terroirs are therefore subject to major variations, reinforced by the changing composition of the soils, depending on their location in the region.
Burgundians therefore distinguish "climats", to reflect the complexity of these different terroirs. The production of these sparkling red wines is nowadays very marginal. They are made using the traditional Champagne method, in the same way as the AOC Crémant de Bourgogne. A minimum of 9 months Maturation in the bottle allows them to develop their Powerful red fruit aromas.
It most certainly originates from the Anjou region and is registered in the official catalogue of wine grape varieties on the A1 list. It can also be found in South Africa, Australia, Argentina, Chile, the United States (California), New Zealand, etc. It is said to be a descendant of Savagnin and to have sauvignonasse as its second parent (Jean-Michel Boursiquot 2019). On the other hand, Chenin blanc is the half-brother of verdelho and sauvignon blanc and is the father of colombard.
At the 2021 Decanter World Wine Awards, the world’s largest wine competition saw its biggest year to date, with 18,094 wines tasted from 56 countries. Over 15 consecutive days in June 2021, almost 170 expert wine judges, including 44 Masters of Wine and 11 Master Sommeliers, awarded 50 Best in Show, 179 Platinum, 635 Gold, 5,607 Silver and 8,332 Bronze medals. Join Decanter at our Fine Wine Encounter NYC this June, where you will have the opportunity to sample 23 of these top awarded Gold, Plati ...
‘New’ is the second most popular word in any sales catalogue. (The first is ‘Free’.) We scribblers can’t resist it: it guarantees copy of one sort or another. Even in the slowly evolving world of wine, where the main ethos of the product is historical continuity, ‘new’ sells. To someone like me with a strong sense of history, not to mention conservative tastes, it can be a bit unsettling. It’s not really change that bothers me. There is always room for improvement. What can irritate me is change ...
I first contributed to Decanter back in November 1988; the hundreds of columns and articles I’ve written since constitute a journey of discovery. I squirm, though, if I’m described as a ‘wine expert’. Whatever wine knowledge we acquire quickly cools, congeals and crusts over, like custard or gravy, as the years pass. The wine world expands at a clip. Every vintage rewrites history. It’s the chance to share discoveries – not just about wines, but about people, places and the act of drinking itsel ...
