CREMANT D'ALSACE EXTRA BRUT- Jean Baptiste Adam

Description adn Press Reviews:
Wine Style:  Crémant d'Alsace

Crémant d'Alsace Extra Brut Jean Baptiste Adam  has no less than 14 generations of winemakers behind it – the House having been founded in 1614, in the Alsace village of Ammerschwihr.  Ammerschwihr lies in the Kaefferkopf Grand Cru vineyard and this Crémant is made with bio dynamic principles.  It is made from the Chardonnay grape and is a delicate and dazzling wine with notes of melon, lemon, ripe pear and toast.  Being medium weighted with a dry, robust finish it accompanies rich dishes such as duck, venison and beef as well as mackerel, smoked salmon and sturgeon.

Crémant wines are often mistaken for Champagnes and are made by the same methods but in other regions of France so therefore can not officially be called “Champagne.” Crémant is the French word for "creaming" - this means that they are made with slightly more than half the pressure of champagne. This doesn’t give them any less sparkle but makes a wine with a fizzy mousse of bubbles and a delicious refreshing tingle on the tongue.

The market leader in at-home sales of AOC sparkling wines in France is Crémant d’Alsace. These wines are made with exactly the same grapes as Champagne (Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay), and with the same method, but often come from estates that are considerably older.

Joanna Simon (Sunday Times, The Wine Gang, Decanter) - bone-dry with an almond-brioche flavour . . . I recommended a Crémant d'Alsace with Asian food in my first column, as a match for spicy Sichuan and milder Chinese dishes, but I can't help feeling that Alsace's dry sparkling wine remains quite a well kept secret in the UK. Too well kept in my view, so I hope I'm about to change that.

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