“From this glass every day I drink to your health a genuinely fresh and flowery Alsatian wine”, Henri Matisse is purported to once have said to a muse. We don’t know if he was thinking about Crémant, but it’s quite possible, because the elegant, finely sparkling wine inspires all of one’s senses:

Attention first turns to the sense of hearing when the cork pops out of the bottle with a bang and the fine bubbles fizz in the glass. And the clinking of the glasses is like music to the ears of any connoisseur.

The eye joins in the pleasure of the pale golden colour of Crémant d’Alsace that reveals a play of colours with greenish yellow and silvery reflexes in the glass.

The nose rejoices at the great freshness from which develops a variety of aromas that smell of white fruits such as apples or pears to dried fruit and white flowers.

The fine bubbles tickle your mouth at the first sip, allowing your taste buds to experience the freshness and fruitiness of the Crémant.

Perfect interplay of grape varieties and the art of making wine
But what makes this sparkling wine so special? For one, it’s the familiar (and precisely determined) Alsatian grape varieties Pinot blanc, Riesling, Pinot gris, Auxerrois, Chardonnay and Pinot noir, which in most cases are wed in harmonious interplay into a cuvee or are filled without being mixed together. Since the end of the 18th century traditional bottle fermentation has made a sparkling pleasure from the still drops. In 1976 the traditional production methods, which conform to those of Champagne, were codified by decree, assuring the quality of the sparkling drops over the long term. Accordingly, a yield of 80 hectolitres per hectare may not be exceeded, for example, which is less than that for Champagne. About 500 winegrowers in Alsace produce Crémant, accounting for ten percent of overall wine production.

Crémant d’Alsace should be drunk as young as possible. It is best served chilled to 5-7° in Champagne flutes which better accentuate Crémant than Champagne glasses.

Further information is available at www.language.vinsalsace.com/en + http://www.tourisme-alsace.com/en/vineyards