Toasting the Holidays

Cremants and other potables that add sparkle to the seaason

 One of the endearing things about going to dinner in the small-town restaurants of Burgundy is to be offered an aperitif of the house on arrival, a glass of the local sparkling wine called a Crémant de Bourgogne.
As soon as you sit down, a tray appears with this refreshing welcome, something to invigorate you for the dinner ahead.
Whenever I can find a good crémant around the metro area, which is not all that often, I buy it. For my money, crémants, and their Italian white sparkling wine cousins — made by the same methods — are great bargains.
Crémants tend to run $15-$25, while even the best of their Italian counterparts are under $30 a bottle.
Burgundy is the region below Champagne, and crémant is made the same way as champagnes, although the grapes used in Burgundy can vary. Chardonnay and pinot noir, the two main grapes used in champagne making, also happen to be the main grapes in Burgundy’s red and white flat wines.
The word crémant tends to confuse. Many people believe incorrectly that it’s a different method for making sparkling wine. It’s not. That other method is called charmat, a bulk fermentation process that takes place in large tanks, from which sparkling wine is then bottled. Whereas, in champagnes and crémants, fermentation is done in each individual bottle.
The word “crémant” came into use only quite recently. In the 1980s, the European Union decreed that the words then used on bottles — “méthode champenoise” — be removed because “champenoise” suggested it came from Champagne (the region), which it didn’t. The counter argument, that it was merely describing the method of wine-making, not the place, did not fly and all the sparkling wine makers outside the Champagne region were left with the problem of what to call their bubbly.
So, in came the word “crémant” as the replacement. It’s now used on all kinds of sparkling wines from regions all over France, most notably in Alsace, Limoux, the Loire, and Bordeaux.
When both champagnes and crémants are made from chardonnay and pinot noir alone, they are so close in character that most people would have a difficult time identifying them from each other.
Three good choices for this holiday season:
Louis Bouillot Perle d’Aurore Rosé Brut ($18): A Crémant de Bourgogne of 100-percent pinot noir, or a blanc de noir. Pink color, raspberry notes, fresh mouthfeel, firm lingering finish.
Lucien Albrecht Crémant d’Alsace ($27): Made of 100-percent pinot blanc, this blanc de blancs also has a fine bead (bubble line), a slight pineapple aroma, a deeper gold color, and a little more thickness than its northern counterparts.
Ferrari Perle Brut Metodo Classico ($25): Technically a spumante from Italy, but made by the champagne methods. Pale straw-yellow with a green hue and a very fine bead. Bread-like aromas, green apple and pear notes in the mouth, and a clean, firm finish.

This article appears in the December 2007 of Hour Detroit.
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