French Crémants
Vintage image sourced on Pinterest
We all know and love Champagne, but who can realistically splash out on Champagne on any kind of regular basis? And the next best thing is Prosecco or Cava, right? Perhaps, but French Crémants are actually a closer budget alternative stylistically, with many that are under-valued and delightfully complex, with teeny, persistent bubbles and subtle hints of brioche-y goodness. So yes, you can swap in a Crémant for your mimosas, but these wines are also delicious enough to be served solo.
France has eight different official appellations for Crémant, and this tasting will narrow in on some of the most widely available styles so that you can decide on your favorites.
Stuff to know
French Crémants, like Champagne, must be made from hand-harvested grapes that are pressed in whole bunches to gently extract the juice, which requires both skilled manual labor and pricey specialized grape presses. Unlike Champagne, Crémants are made in other regions in France, in one of eight different regions:
Bourgogne
Alsace
The Loire
Bordeaux
The Rhône
Jura
Savoie
Limoux in the Languedoc Roussillon
Each Crémant appellation, as is the way in France, has its own style, grapes, rules and regulations. But all Crémants are made using the méthode champenoise, AKA traditional method, which, as you’ve already surmised, is the method used to make Champagne.
One key difference method-wise between Champagne and Crémant is how long the wines are aged. In general, Crémants are aged for nine months on the lees, those gross-sounding but delicious flavor-imparting dead yeast cells that are captured in the bottle after being exhausted by their fermentation efforts. When lees hang out with the wine, flavors like lightly toasted hazelnuts and fresh-baked brioche appear on the scene. In Crémants, lees-induced flavors tend to be more subtle than they are in Champagne, so the flavors from the grapes themselves are more predominant…but there are always exceptions. Some producers choose to exceed the lees-aging minimums or choose to create Crémants that meet higher classification levels, like Crémant de Bourgogne Eminent, a style that requires at least 24 months of lees aging, double the length of standard Champagne. Most Crémants adhere to the nine months’ on lees, twelve months in bottle rule though, since these are the styles most easily sold and understood in the global marketplace.
What to look for in this tasting
If you haven’t ever paid much attention to how a sparkling wine really tastes beyond the bubbles, this tasting (along with others like Sparkling Wine Essentials or Champagne Essentials) is your chance. I promise, there really are massive flavor differences between different styles of sparkling wine, and tasting them side-by-side is the best way to see them for yourself.
French Crémants will generally have a soft, fizzy cream texture, much like Champagne, since they’re made using the traditional method. The bubbles shouldn’t be aggressive or extra prickly, and they should be persistent, meaning that these wines won’t quickly flatten out.
Flavor-wise, whether the Crémant selected is a white or rosé and which grapes are used definitely matters. That said, all of the wines should have brisk, fresh acidity and flavors like golden apple, fresh cream, strawberries, raspberries, brioche, lemon zest and even oyster shells. Pay attention to the flavor concentration and finish, or how long the flavors linger on your tongue, since they will tell you the most about the Crémants’ overall quality. When concentrated flavors linger long after the liquid has gone down the gullet, you know you’ve found a winner.
The wines
#1: Crémant d’Alsace
Alsace lies in northeastern France, along the south- and southeastern-facing foothills of the Vosges mountains. The Vosges protect Alsace, breaking up rain clouds and storms that might otherwise shake up this surprisingly sunny northern region. When I visited in early June, it was already warm enough to complain about the lack of air conditioning in an old hotel at night, though the region’s over-the-top charm and bursts of color from blooming flowers in every window box made up for the discomfort. This is, after all, the region that inspired the story of Beauty and the Beast. And yes, of course I shamelessly sang “there goes the baker with his tray like always…” every time I passed one of the boulangeries with their Alsatian Kougelhopf specialties, embarassing my German friend every step of the way.
In Alsace, Crémants are made with Pinot Blanc, Auxerrois, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir…but most are predominantly Pinot Blanc, which also goes by Weissburgunder in Germany and Austria. Pinot Blanc, as the name suggests, is a white grape variety related to Pinot Noir, though it gets nowhere near as much love as its darker-skinned relative and is instead known for making good, but forgettable white wines. In Pinot Blanc’s defense, I’ve had some thoroughly enjoyable wines from the grape, particularly when flavors of ripe pear and spicy dried ginger make an appearance. In Crémant d’Alsace, look out for similar flavors of golden apple, pear, dried ginger and brioche.
If you select a rosé Crémant d’Alsace, it will be made entirely from Pinot Noir, as is legally required in this region. You can expect to find flavors like just-ripe raspberries and strawberries and cream in these wines.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternative(s): Crémant d’Alsace Emotion, a style that requires a minimum of 24 months of lees aging
#2: Crémant de Bourgogne
Burgundy, just south of Champagne, unsurprisingly uses similar grape varieties in their Crémants as those in Champagne: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but with the additions of Gamay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Aligoté and Melon, usually used in smaller amounts.
When I lived in Burgundy, Crémant de Bourgogne was our go-to post-exam or post-group project celebratory wine, since celebrations necessitate bubbles, and let’s be real, we were all broke and couldn’t swing for Champagne while funding our MBA studies. After graduation, I got to work with producers like Henri Champliau and Parigot et Richard, whose wines I’ve happily recommended ever since.
For this tasting, feel free to select a regular Crémant de Bourgogne, which is a white sparkling wine made from white or red grapes, or go with a Blanc de Blancs (white grapes only), Blanc de Noirs (red grapes only) or rosé. The scents and flavors you’ll find in Crémants de Bourgogne will vary by the style, but golden apples, brioche, lemon zest, berries and even oyster shells can make an appearance.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternative(s): Crémant de Bourgogne Eminent, which requires a minimum of 24 months’ lees aging, or Crémant de Bourgogne Grand Eminent, which requires a minimum of 36 months’ lees aging, along with further quality-driven restrictions
#3: Vouvray Mousseux
Ok, technically Vouvray Mousseux (”voov-ray mousse-uh”) isn’t a Crémant, but I still think it belongs in this tasting, since we’re tasting classic styles of French sparkling wines that aren’t Champagne. There is a Crémant de Loire from the same region, and you can certainly pick up one of those instead, but I chose Vouvray Mousseux because it’s more specific, in that it’s always predominantly, if not entirely, made from Chenin Blanc grapes.
Crémant de Loire, on the other hand, can be made from Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grolleau Noir, Grolleau Gris, Pineau d’Aunis, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. I have nothing against Crémant de Loire and have very happy memories sipping these bubbles between tours of extravagantly beautiful Loire Valley châteaux, I just feel that Vouvray Mousseux is usually a clearer taste of Chenin Blanc, the Loire’s signature white grape, in sparkling form.
The “mousseux” in Vouvray Mousseux just means “sparkling,” and it’s included because there is a whole range of still and sweet wines made in Vouvray from Chenin Blanc, so the distinction matters. Chenin Blanc is known for its bracingly high acidity and subtle, romantically pretty flavors like bruised apple, honey, quince, chamomile and pear, which will combine with flavors of lightly toasted hazelnuts from lees aging in these sparkling wines.
What to ask for: Ask by style name
Alternative(s): Vouvray Pétillant, which will have softer and lighter bubbles, Crémant de Loire, Saumur Mousseux, or Prestige de Loire, which requires a minimum of 24 months’ lees aging
#4: Crémant de Limoux
Dom Pérignon tends to get all the credit for the creation of traditional method sparkling wines, but the real origins are fuzzy, and there are those who support claims from further south, in Limoux.
Limoux is all the way down in the south of France, in the Languedoc-Roussillon wine region, close to the Mediterranean Sea. You’d think it would be too warm to make high quality sparkling wine down there, but the grapes for these wines are grown in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, where whipping winds and altitude cool things off. There are records written by Benedictine nuns from the Saint-Hilaire abbey in 1531 that indicate they knew what was what when it came to making sparkling wines, describing how to capture the bubbles in a second fermentation in bottle, which we know today as the traditional method. Whether the nuns were first or not is hotly debated though, and unfortunately, no one really knows.
Luckily, there are still sparkling wines made in Limoux. Crémant de Limoux, my preferred style from this region, is made from Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc with small amounts of Pinot Noir and the local grape Mauzac. There is another style, Blanquette de Limoux, that you are also welcome to try. Blanquette de Limoux is predominantly made from Mauzac, a local grape variety that will contribute flavors like green apple, pear and something vegetal, like dandelions or fresh-cut grass.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternative(s): Blanquette de Limoux, Crémant de Bordeaux, Blanquette méthode ancestrale
#5: Crémant du Jura
Jura, east of Burgundy in northwestern France, is one of those wine regions beloved by wine geeks, and for good reason. It’s a relatively small region, but its wines are so distinctive and such good quality that I’d happily go back anytime.
When I lived in Burgundy, a group of fellow MBA students drove over to Jura for La Percée du Vin Jaune, a festival celebrating the release of the latest Vin Jaune vintage, a wine made from Savagnin grapes aged in oak barrels in a particular way, with partially full barrels allowing the development of a thin veil of yeast that protects the wine from direct contact with oxygen for six years and three months before release. The festival itself is an unforgettable experience, ducking down into one cellar after another to taste richly intense wines throughout the crowded village of Arbois. But of course we were wine & spirits MBA students, so we expanded the trip to visit producers and taste through their full ranges of wines, which included several Crémants du Jura. And even though I was a broke student, I found room in the budget for a few of these bottles of bubbly to bring back with me to Burgundy, since they always over-delivered, making them a steal.
Crémant du Jura wines can be made from white grapes Chardonnay and Savagnin, and red grapes Poulsard, Trousseau and Pinot Noir. Rosé Crémant du Jura wines must include a minimum of 50 percent red grapes, and the white wines must be a minimum 70 percent Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Trousseau. If possible, keep an eye out for Crémants du Jura with significant portions of Savagnin in the blend, since this grape variety adds a distinctive weight and tangy citrus-y flavors that set these wines apart from other Crémants.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternative(s): Stick with a Crémant du Jura
#6: Crémant de Savoie
Crémant de Savoie is the most recent addition to the list of French Crémants, having been added in 2014. Savoie is a small, alpine wine region that sits on the border with Switzerland and Italy in eastern France. I haven’t been to Savoie yet, though I happily discovered wines made from this region’s signature grapes when I lived in Burgundy, where they are widely available and more importantly, quite affordable, a key factor when I was an MBA student.
Local white grape varieties Jacquère and Altesse make up the backbone of these Crémants, comprising at least 60 percent of the blend, though Chasselas, Chardonnay and Aligoté are allowed, too. Red grapes like Pinot Noir and Gamay can only be up to 20 percent of the blend. These alpine wines manage to somehow taste like cool, fresh, clean air, with flavors like quince, green apples, pears and even freshly cut mountain grass.
What to ask for: Ask by name
Alternative(s): Crémant de Die or Clairette de Die from the Rhône
Tasting tips
The eats
As sparkling wines, Crémants go with pretty much everything. That said, if there was a particular food category that goes outrageously well with sparkling wine, it’s fried stuff. Fatty, salty foods feel lighter when bubbles pop off on your palate between bites. Fried chicken, French fries, tempura fried vegetables, any and all of it. Now, I fully recognize that properly timing fried food so that it’s hot and crispy when you want it to be is not exactly easy when hosting. One option is to keep the snacks simple for the first portion of a tasting (popcorn works great here) and order in some fried goodies for delivery, aiming for them to arrive midway through.
If you prefer to go charcuterie-style, aim for mild, creamy cheeses like chèvre, Brie or even melted Swiss fondue. Meat-wise, milder flavors like Speck or Prosciutto are a good fit, and the snack-y accoutrements can range from crunchy corn nuts to figs, honey, toasted pecans, dried apricots, and slices of Granny Smith apples.
The prep
These wines should be relatively easy to find, though its a good idea to give your guests at least two weeks to find their wines. They’ll have a range of price points to choose from for each style, so it’s up to you as a host to decide if you’d like to set a spending range, or if you’d prefer to let your guests determine what they’re each comfortable spending on this tasting.
This is one of those tastings where a bit of extra equipment will go a long way in making the experience better for you as a host. Two items that I highly recommend having on hand:
Ice buckets. With sparkling wines, properly chilling isn’t just about the tasting experience. It’s about safety. Chilling sparkling wines reduces the pressure in the bottles, so that the risk of a rogue cork and wasted wine is dramatically diminished. Taking a few extra minutes to chill: worth it.
Sparkling wine stoppers. If you can swing 6 of these, amazing. Mine somehow always go missing, so I’m not even sure how many are left in my liquor cabinet at the moment. Once all of your bottles are opened for tasting, bubbles will leak out, flattening the wines. If you put these stoppers on between pours, you can dramatically extend the life of the wine and its bubbles.
I didn’t mention champagne flutes or coupes here, and that was intentional. I recommend using white or universal wine glasses unless you have tulip-shaped sparkling wine glasses. Not only will it save you the money and storage space for extra glasses, it’s actually a better tasting experience, giving you plenty of room at the top of your glass for the wine’s aromas to come through clearly.
A note on the tasting order: The wines are listed in the order of which should be included first, so that even if there are just 4 wines in the tasting, you’ve got a well-rounded experience ahead. However, I’d suggest switching up the order in which you taste the wines, regardless of how many wines make it in the final cut, as follows:
Vouvray Mousseux
Crémant de Savoie
Crémant d’Alsace
Crémant de Limoux
Crémant de Bourgogne
Crémant de Jura
