Wine Blogging Wednesday 28: Non-Champagne Sparklers

This is not a wine blog, nor a food blog, but it is about my experiences in Paris while doing my postdoc, and it would be ridiculous to claim that living in France had not broadly widened my experiences in food and wine. I have a blog, which makes me a blogger, so without any excuses I am participating in Wine Blogging Wednesday, even though it may not do anything to advance my career or my chemistry research. The theme for this blog event was sparkling wines from outside of Champagne, so I tried to select something interesting that was probably not available outside of France.

What I ended up doing is taking a look at the alternatives to Champagne which are available in a typical small Parisian grocery store. I was stunned to find out that there were so many sparkling wines at a fraction of the cost of the bottles of Champagne. There were sparkling wines for less the two euros! Could they be any good? Why are they so cheap? We may never know the answers to these questions, but one has to start somewhere, and it might as well be cost-efficient.

An aquaintance of mine who hails from Toulouse and was on my trip to Champagne with the Club International des Jeunes a Paris last November had mentioned her preference for the sparkling wines of Limoux, which I did find among the section of cheap sparkling wines in the grocery store. I selected two: a Blanquette and a Cremant. They are from the Languedoc-Roussillon, which is the region between Provence and the France-Spain border, along the coast of the Mediterranean sea, although Limoux itself lies 50 km inland, in the mountains.

Both the Blanquette and the Cremant are non-vintage wines distributed by Jean Babou, with not much else indicated on the label. Blanquette de Limoux is probably the oldest sparkling wine in France, having been 'invented' by monks in the 16th century who noticed that the wines they bottled in April became naturally sparkling in the bottles. The name 'Blanquette' is actually the local name for the Mauzac grape, which has a fine powdery 'blanket' on the underside of its leaves. The majority of the grapes in Blanquette de Limoux are Mauzac, with up to 10% allowed to be from Chardonnay and Chenin, according to the standards of the appellation controlee. The wine becomes sparkling in the bottle due to incomplete fermentation of the juice before bottling, avoiding all the steps of degorgement and addition of liquor that are necessary as part of the second fermentation in the Methode Champenoise.

When I poured this wine, it had a nice pale yellow color with foamy bubbles that lasted only a couple seconds and left behind a bimodal set of bubbles: big ones along the side of the glass, and some fine ones floating up from the bottom. The aromas were not yeasty at all, but rather lemon and green apple. The flavor matched the aroma, with the addition of a very light honey note, and it was acidic and quite dry. The attack was very light but came on stronger on the midpalate and had a refreshing, moderately lingering finish. At a price of 3.60 euros, I would take this to an informal party because it would strike up a conversation and be fun to drink, but its not worth dragging home on the plane to the States.

I also tasted a Cremant de Limoux, which is also an 'appellation controlee' but it is allowed to have up to 20% of Chardonnay and Chenin with the Mauzac grapes. It held up its bubbles longer then the Blanquette after pouring, but after those dissipated the wine was only weakly carbonated. Just as pale in color as the Blanquette, the aroma was less citric, with faint vanilla notes, but when it came to the the flavor it was right back to the green apple that I tasted in the Blanquette, with a more even balance between the front and midpalate, but hardly any finish. I searched this wine in vain for a hint of complexity. I have to say, though, that it was less acidic and significantly less dry (though not sweet) than the Blanquette, which made it more quaffable. I could drink this wine quite easily without getting tired of it, but I would probably get drunk quickly, since it's so mild and goes down so easily, even at 12.5% alcohol. For 4.50 euros, I was satisfied that I enjoyed this wine enough to buy it again, but I wouldn't try to introduce it to friends, because it's not really much fun to have a wine that is only a little sparkly. It doesn't really fit into the category of dud, party, or celebration drink, but rather, the sparkling wine that doesn't require any excuse: the one to have at home for when you've had a tough day. If I have to choose, I'll probably put this in the category of dud for its lack of sparkle and its forgettability.

In my quest to taste alternatives to Champagne I also bought a Brut de Loire and Cremant de Loire, which were in fact actually from wine stores. But, I'm just one girl and I didn't have the chance to open them up yet. They're chilling in my fridge, though, ready for me in case of a really tough day (or a really great one!) or for someone to appreciate them with me. I'll write about it here if any of those things happen.