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Non-vintage champagnes have seemingly been the same price for decades, but the last few years has seen big-names rise steeply. Savvy drinkers are seeking out more affordable alternatives - two that come to mind are crémant and local sparkling wine, both of which have been gaining traction with fizz aficionados for their price and for being good drops.
Crémant is a term used in France to refer to the finest dry sparkling wine made outside of Champagne, using the same traditional method. The main crémants you’ll come across are Alsace, Bourgogne (Burgundy), Loire and Limoux, but there’s also Bordeaux, Die, Jura and Savoie.
The Loire is my go-to place for interesting wines. The region produces a huge variety of styles (more than any other French region) including red, white, rosé and even sweet dessert styles. But did you know that the Loire is a sparkling wine powerhouse?
The Crémant de Loire appellation was created in 1975 in the Middle Loire, mainly in the region of Saumur, but also in Anjou and Touraine. Crémant de Loire is a dry sparkling wine made in both white and rosé styles. The main variety used is chenin blanc, although a few international varieties like chardonnay are also permitted in the blend. As in Champagne, where pinot noir and pinot meunier are used, red varieties are also allowed, most notably cabernet franc.
Langlois-Chateau has Terra Vitis accreditation, a French benchmark for sustainable vineyard practices.
The potential of Saumur has been recognised by the Champenois themselves, with several houses setting up shop there, including Taittinger and Alfred Gratien. In the 1970s, the vineyards and wines of Saumur-based Langlois-Chateau estate caught the eye of Champagne heavyweight Bollinger, who acquired a majority share in 1973 and since then has invested heavily to modernise it.
The House of Langlois-Chateau was originally created in 1912 by Edouard Langlois and his wife Jeanne Chateau, with the house specialising in sparkling wines. Edouard was tragically killed in 1915 during WWI and subsequently awarded the Military Cross. Jeanne took over running the estate, aided later by both her son and son-in-law.
In 2007 the historical headquarters overlooking the Loire were significantly enlarged and upgraded, with all aspects of production moved there. The winery boasts state of the art pneumatic presses and temperature-controlled tanks. There have also been significant changes made to the vineyards, with Langlois-Chateau one of the first estates to obtain the Terra Vitis label, a French benchmark for sustainable vineyard practices. 30ha are currently in conversion to organic. The estate has acquired more and more vineyards over the years and now has 95ha of its own, located in Saumur, Saumur-Champigny and Sancerre, with the majority of the estate’s production devoted to Crémant.
The house’s reputation rests predominantly on sparkling wine. Langlois-Chateau is one of only three estates in Saumur referred to in the Oxford Companion to Wine, noting “the quality of winemaking is high.”
The wines of Langlois-Chateau receive the same attention to detail and are subject to the exacting standards of Bollinger’s best champagnes. Both see grapes handpicked and pressed gently in state-of-the-art pneumatic presses. The care taken in winemaking is far beyond category standards - at the level of only the top few champagne producers.
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Langlois-Chateau Crémant de Loire Blanc Brut NV
This wine is a blend of at least 50% chenin blanc, the balance equal amounts of chardonnay and cabernet franc, with the fruit coming from 6 terroirs, with a predominance of chalky soil, as in champagne.
The different parcels of fruit are kept separate (by variety and site) for the initial ferment. The blend is then assembled with 10% reserve wines (ie. older, more complex wines) and given its second ferment in bottle, like champagne. It then spends a minimum of 24 months maturing on lees (the dead yeast cells in the bottle) in the 6km of the estate’s freestone cellars.
The chenin really gives this such a fresh, green apple crunch. Behind this crisp delicacy though, you’ll find unexpected complexity for a wine of this price.
“This is a round, mouth-filling sparkling wine with ripe flavours layered with grapefruit acidity and a tight, final texture that is crisp and mineral.” 90 points, Wine Enthusiast.
“Langlois Chateau Crémant de Loire Brut NV Sparkling wine has vibrant and racy fruit, bready yeast flavours and zesty appley freshness, accompanied by the waxed lemony flavours of a Chenin Blanc. Fresh orchard-fruit aromas burst from the glass of this easy-drinking Chenin-Blanc, Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay blend. In the mouth it’s honeyed and balanced with an Old World feel. The Crémant de Loire Appellation is among the most demanding sparkling wine appellations in France. Under Bollinger, Langlois has further augmented the regulations to equal, and even exceed, those of Champagne.” Decanter Magazine.
“This has finesse on the palate, freshness and a delicate, persistent mousse. Crisp acidity, vibrant lemon sherbet characters, but also plush and rounded on the mid-palate. Complex and long with a pronounced green apple character on the finish. Will keep.” 92 points, Andy Howard MW.
“Fresh orchard-fruit aromas burst from the glass of this easy-drinking Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay blend. In the mouth it is honeyed and balanced with an Old World feel. A good-value winter party fizz from a Bollinger-owned estate.” Decanter Dec 2017, Recommended.
Bollinger pedigree. This is great drinking.
I can offer it for $39.50 a bottle.
And speaking of Bollinger… I’m super excited to offer a new release from Australian-based Bollinger scion Xavier Bizot, one of my favourite local winemakers.
Xavier’s father, Christian Bizot was Bollinger patriarch and chairman from the late 70s to the mid-90s and his great aunt was none other than formidable Lily Bollinger, who ran Bollinger from 1941-1971.
Xavier’s been making sparkling wine under his Daosa label in the Adelaide Hills since 2009, when he released his first Blanc de Blanc (100% chardonnay).
The Adelaide Hills sit an easy 30-minute drive to the east of Adelaide and are part of the Mount Lofty Ranges. Vines were planted here as far back as the 1840s, and from then until 1900 there were 225 grape growers in the area, including big names like Penfolds and Hardys. But according to Wine Australia, the peak industry body, “unfortunately, due to the challenges of cool climate viticulture, most of these had been grubbed up by the 1930s.”
It was not until the 1970s that Brian Croser identified the area as suitable for cool-climate varieties and planted the Tiers Vineyard in the Piccadilly Valley in 1979.
It was Croser who also really brought the region to prominence, and by the mid-90s it was recognised as a premier cool climate site, especially for chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, pinot noir and shiraz. When Penfolds set out to create their ‘White Grange’ from chardonnay in the early 90s, the first Yattarna was finally released after 144 trial wines in 1995, with the majority of the fruit (55%) sourced from the Adelaide Hills. The following vintage 92% of the fruit came from the Adelaide Hills and in 2003 it was 100% Adelaide Hills. Interestingly, while much of the fruit for Yattarna is now sourced from Tassie, it’s the Penfolds Reserve Bin A, which is sourced entirely from the Adelaide Hills, that often outpoints it.
Xavier Bizot and Lucy Croser.
Not only is Adelaide Hills one of the best places to grow chardonnay in Australia, it’s also one of the best sparkling wine regions. Aside from Daosa, there are several other top producers in the region - Deviation Road and Ashton Hills spring to mind.
The emphasis on Brain Croser is serendipitous - his daughter Lucy married Xavier in 2003. Not only that, in a homecoming twist of fate, Brian reacquired the original Petaluma winery in 2014, so it’s here that Xavier now makes Doasa sparkling wines, as well as his Terre à Terre table wines, which I also sell.
Xavier makes a Daosa Vintage Blanc de Blanc as well as a Daosa Natural Reserve Non-Vintage. Both are terrific wines, with the current Blanc de Blanc included as one of just 8 sparkling wines in Halliday’s Top 100 Wines for 2023. Xavier made his first sparkling vintage rosé in 2020… which is the wine I’m excited to offer to you.
Interest in Australian sparking rosé is very recent, no doubt fuelled by a wider interest in rosé in general. But rosé champagne is no new fad.
“Historians at Champagne Ruinart found papers recording that on March 14, 1764—250 years ago—Ruinart sold bottles of rosé Champagne. It was previously thought that Veuve Clicquot was the first to produce and sell rosé Champagne, in 1775.” Wine Spectator March 2014.
Despite this, it wasn’t really until the last 50 years that rosé champagne was more generally released. It’s interesting to note that when they were released, it wasn’t as some entry level sip-and-giggle, it was a Prestige Cuvée. Krug released its first rosé in 1983, Louis Roederer its first Cristal Rosé in 1974 and Dom Perignon’s first Rosé was 1962.
Daosa Piccadilly Valley Rosé 2020
The fruit for this wine is sourced entirely from Xavier’s Piccadilly Vineyard, located at altitude in the Adelaide Hills. It’s 100% pinot noir, handpicked and made using the same traditional method used in champagne. The rosé colour comes from more time in the press and also from the addition of a small volume of pinot noir still wine at tirage, which is when a liquid solution of sugar, yeast and wine is added to the still wines to initiate the secondary fermentation, which adds the bubbles. It spent 22 months ageing on lees in bottle.
This is such a delightful wine, full of fragrant strawberry aromas and flavours. It’s fresh and dry, with a lovely soft mouthfeel. Yum.
“It is a very complex style of rosé, with a pink salmon colour. The strawberry aromas and subtle red blossom fragrances carry through on the palate, with a dry and spicy finish.” Winemaker's notes.
“Very light salmon-pink hue; pot-pourri, quince-paste, nutty and just-ripe strawberry aromas, very appealing and the oak factor is quite subtle. Full and rich in the mouth, with a pleasingly dry but soft-textured finish. 22 months on lees, all fermentation and malolactic in barrel.”
95 points, Huon Hooke, The Real Review.
I can’t think of a more suitable festive season fizz.
I can offer it for $64 a bottle.
I also have:
Daosa Blanc de Blanc 2015 @ $85 a bottle
Daosa Natural Reserve Non-Vintage (5th release) @ $45 a bottle
And if it has to be Champagne, how about some of the best Grower Champagne?
Laherte Frères Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature NV (Base 20, Disg Jan 23) @$119 a bottle
Larmandier-Bernier Latitude Blanc de Blancs NV (Disg Dec 21) @ $129 a bottle
Agrapart Grand Cru Terroirs Blanc de Blanc NV (Base 19, Disg June 2023) @ $185 a bottle
Suenen Oiry Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru (Base 19, Disg Jan 23) @ $239 a bottle
And a whole bunch of Egly Ouriet you can see here: from $175 - $1,050
For something a little different…
Eric Bordelet Poire Granit 2021 @ $55
Made from 300-year-old pear trees in Normandy, this wine is delicate, crisp and refreshing, its luscious pear flavours offset by a rich champagney breadiness. A creamy textured mousse rounds to a lovely dry finish. Best of all it’s only 3.5-4% alcohol.
“Eric Bordelet produces some of the finest French ciders imported into the U.S. The most complex of his wines is his wonderful Poiré Granit. It exhibits an enthralling nose of pure, refined pear and spice aromas. On the palate, it has exceptional length, balance and definition. Light to medium-bodied, this pear cider has the depth, complexity and length of a top-flight wine.” High praise indeed from Robert Parker.
And lastly don’t forget we have Christmas six-packs...
St Nick's Picks Six-pack @ $200
Christmas Crackers Six-pack @ $375
