Why it tastes like this
Why does Crémant taste like that?
Traditional-method French sparkling wine made outside Champagne, from Alsace, the Loire, Burgundy, Limoux and elsewhere.
These are the contributors WineHQ can name for Crémant as a category. Every one is a tendency, a convention or a mechanism, and each carries a label saying which. None of it describes how a particular producer made a particular bottle — real practice varies enormously, and a causal account that read as a recipe would be false for a great many of the wines it covers.
The grape
What does the variety bring before anyone does anything to it?
Chardonnay
TendencyCharacteristically very low tannin, medium-plus acidity and medium-full body. Commonly associated with green apple, lemon, white peach, pineapple.
Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.
Chenin Blanc
TendencyCharacteristically very low tannin and high acidity. Commonly associated with quince, yellow apple, honey, chamomile.
Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.
Pinot Noir
TendencyCharacteristically medium-plus acidity. Commonly associated with red cherry, raspberry, strawberry, forest floor.
Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.
Winemaking
What decisions were taken between the vineyard and the bottle?
The traditional method
ConventionThe traditional method leaves the wine on its lees in the bottle after the second fermentation, which is where autolytic bread and brioche character develops. Minimum ageing periods are set by appellation rules.
Not claiming: That minimum periods are the same across appellations, or that tank-method wine is inferior — it is made to preserve primary fruit instead.
Lees ageing and bâtonnage
MechanismAutolysis of spent yeast releases mannoproteins and other compounds that contribute texture and weight, and savoury bready characters.
Varies: Effect scales with time and is increased by stirring the lees.
Not claiming: That a bready or brioche character proves long lees ageing. Other routes to similar descriptors exist.
Age
What changes after the wine is bottled?
Development in bottle
TendencyTwo to five years. Crémant carries a shorter minimum lees ageing than Champagne, and most bottlings are made to be drunk on release rather than kept.
Not claiming: That a wine of this style will develop these characters. Ageing potential varies by producer, vintage and storage, and most wine is better young.
Nothing is recorded for place and climate. That is a gap in what WineHQ holds about this style, not a statement that these factors do not apply — and it is recorded rather than filled in.
Follow it up
Style
Crémant
The taste profile, food matches, serving guidance and what to try next.
Science
Why wine is like this
The mechanisms behind each contributor above, explained at the scope they have been established.
Myths
What people get wrong
Several of the explanations usually given for wines like this do not survive checking.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) — Julius Kühn-Institut, Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof
- Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties — Robinson, Harding & Vouillamoz (Allen Lane, 2012)
- Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité (INAO) — INAO, France
- Wines of South Africa — WOSA
- Comité Champagne — Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne
- Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33 — wine labelling, presentation and protection of designations — European Union
- The Australian Wine Research Institute — AWRI