Andre Delorme Cremant De Bourgogne Brut

Who said you need to spend large to drink high quality French sparkling? Cremant is the absolute lesson in drinking the good stuff from France outside of the Champagne region. Think of it as a Champagne look-a-like for a fraction of the price – this is where the smart money goes!

Produced in eight Cremant appellations around France (this one is from Burgundy) the rules and regulations for Cremant production are only slightly less as strict as those in the Champagne region. These include things like mandatory hand harvested grapes, whole bunch pressed and no more than 100 litres of juice per 150kg of grapes.

Andre Delorme’s story started in 1942 on the battlefields of World War II. When he became wounded in battle he returned to Rully in Burgundy to take on his next mission – starting his own wine business. He traded in guns for grapes and founded his own “Maison of Vins de Bourgogne”.

He quickly made a name for himself as a producer of high quality wines which were found on the wine lists of some of the region’s top restaurants.

This is the Andre Delorme Cremant De Bourgogne Brut and it’s the maison’s signature Cremant sparkling.

Produced using Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Gamay Noir and the Aligoté grape (known as Burgundy’s “Other White” grape helping to produce light, citrusy wines) from clay limestone soils, given a secondary fermentation in the bottle (aka Methode Traditionelle aka the same methods they use over in Champagne!), then 12 months on lees for added texture and complexity.

There’s no doubt about it – this is classy Champagne-style sparkling at a seriously good price!