The rise of Crémant: The top bottles to seek out

France is awash with bubbles. And no, I’m not talking about Champagne ; I’m talking about Crémant, the bottle-fermented sparkling wines made outside Champagne, across eight French regions. From Alsace in the northeast down to Burgundy , then skirting the Alps in Jura and Savoie, south to Die and Limoux, across to Bordeaux and finally the Loire Valley , these Crémant appellations trace an effervescent tour of France . They look back on various sparkling wine traditions and come with delicious regional accents. Scroll down to see notes and scores for 20 superb French Crémants [subscriber-content] A rich history Sparkling wines have long been popular in France. Legend has it that they’ve been made in Limoux since the mid-16th century, although evidence of the wine’s effervescence is considerably younger. It was the early success of Champagne and its processes that inspired others. Négociant and winemaker Joseph-Jules Lausseure made Bourgogne Mousseux from his Pinot Noirs in 1818. Others soon followed and, by 1827, more than a million bottles of sparkling Burgundy had been sold in France. Belgian Jean-Baptiste Ackerman pioneered the style in the Loire Valley, a hub of sparkling wine production to this day. He founded his trading house in Saumur in 1811, got into wine production, experimented, and received a gold medal at the 1838 Industrial Exposition of Angers for his 1836 sparkling wine. Troglodyte cellars, carved into the local tuffeau limestone, were ideal, of course. In Alsace, Mousseux d’Alsace was made in the 1880s and ’90s, but it took young Julien Dopff, from a family of coopers and wine producers, to take the idea mainstream. He had visited the Paris Universal Exposition in 1900, discovered Champagne and the méthode Champenoise (as it was then known), and promptly decided to train in Epernay. He then began to make sparkling wine back home in Alsace. The official stamp [caption id="attachment_569202" align="alignnone" width="630"] The cellars at Maison Celene in Entre-deux-Mers, Bordeaux[/caption] Internationally, the success of Champagne, its marketing nous and the region’s fierce stance on defending its (well-deserved) status and quality have left other regional French sparkling styles firmly in the shadows. While Champagne has had a legally protected name since 1887, legally fixed boundaries since 1927 and formalised appellation laws since 1936, other sparkling wines had to wait longer for legal definition, despite their entrenched histories. Initially, local traditions were subsumed into appellation laws, as in Vouvray in 1936, or recognised separately, as in Bourgogne Mousseux (1943) and Saumur (1957); however, ongoing legal wrangling with Champagne and integration with European laws finally resulted in the creation of dedicated appellations for Crémant, starting in the 1970s. Crémant de Loire and de Bourgogne, both of which were created in 1975, are celebrating their 50th anniversaries this year, while Alsace will do so in 2026. Crémant appellations for Limoux (Languedoc) and Bordeaux were formalised in 1990, Die (Drôme) in 1993, Jura in 1995 and Savoie in 2015. [breakout]

Know your Crémant styles France Loire

AP received 1975 Colours white, rosé Area in production 3,600ha Grape varieties Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Orbois, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon (max 30%), Grolleau, Grolleau Gris, Pineau d’Aunis (max 30%), Pinot Noir

Bourgogne

AP received 1975 Colours white, rosé Area in production 3,433ha Grape varieties Pinot Noir, Chardonnay (min 30%), Gamay (max 30%), Aligoté, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Sacy, Melon

Alsace

AP received 1976 Colours white, rosé Area in production 4,567ha Grape varieties Auxerrois, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Riesling; rosé wines must be 100% Pinot Noir

Limoux

AP received 1990 Colours white, rosé Area in production 1,097ha Grape varieties Chardonnay (min 30%), Chenin Blanc (min 10%), Mauzac (max 20%), Pinot Noir (max 30%)

Bordeaux

AP received 1990 Colours white, rosé Area in production 1,927ha Grape varieties Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Malbec, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Muscadelle, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, Semillon plus ‘supporting’ varieties Ugni Blanc, Colombard and Merlot Blanc (max 30% alone or together)

Die

AP received 1993 Colours white Area in production 66ha Grape varieties Clairette, Aligoté (10%-40%), Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains (5%-10%)

Jura

AP received 1995 Colours white, rosé Area in production 298ha Grape varieties Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Savagnin, Poulsard, Trousseau. For white: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Trousseau can account for min. 70% of the blend; for rosé, Pinot Noir, Poulsard and Trousseau must represent min 50% of the blend

Savoie

AP received 2015 Colours white Area in production 47ha Grape varieties Jacquère (min 40%), Altesse (together with Jacquère min 60%), Aligoté, Mondeuse Blanche, Chardonnay, Chasselas, Molette, Gamay, Mondeuse, Pinot Noir; max 20% of red grapes

Luxembourg AP received 1991 Colours white, rosé Area in production n/a Grape varieties Elbling, Müller-Thurgau, Auxerrois, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, Saint Laurent, Sylvaner

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Perfect party choice These appellation laws are tailored to the production of sparkling wine. The foremost aim is to prevent the oxidation of grape juice before pressing. All Crémant rules thus mandate hand harvesting and the size or fill height of the transport containers of the grapes. Even the maximum drop from hopper to press is governed, as is the maximum time between picking and pressing. Grapes must be whole-bunch-pressed and only to a specified limit. Only grapes for rosé wines may be macerated on the skins. Wines must be made by second fermentation in bottle, spend at least nine months maturing on lees and have a certain minimum pressure. Buying Crémant thus guarantees a minimum level of sparkling wine quality – a standard that countless producers have mastered, scaled and translated into price. It’s perfectly possible to buy Crémant in a French supermarket for far less than €10, less than £15 here in the UK and less than $30 or even $20 in the US. This makes Crémant a real value proposition, especially for parties, but it also means that there are many perfectly correct but uninspiring Crémants out there. Beyond France? Look out for Crémant de Luxembourg Formalised in 1991, Crémant de Luxembourg is made from grapes grown along the western bank of the Moselle river. Unlike in neighbouring Germany, where the river grinds its way through the Rhenish slate massif, the soils along this 42km stretch are of Triassic marls and limestone where Pinot varieties, Chardonnay and Riesling thrive very close to the 50th parallel of latitude – further north than either Epernay or Reims. Each year, the country produces about three million bottles. Domaine Alice Hartmann, Brut, Crémant de Luxembourg, Moselle, Luxembourg NV 90pts £46.80 Hedonism Made from half Riesling and roughly a quarter each of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, the last two having been matured in oak as base wine. Lovely aromas of tangerine jelly and peel join a creamy smokiness. The palate straddles that smooth, oaky creaminess with bright, fresh Riesling fruit, offering a touch of honey and more tangerine. Aged for just 18 months on lees, this is a sophisticated yet fruit-driven, light-bodied Crémant that will work both as aperitif and alongside spicy dishes. Drink 2025-2030 Alcohol 12.5% Finding the jewels [caption id="attachment_569296" align="alignnone" width="630"] Langlois-Chateau in the Loire Valley. Credit: Langlois-Chateau[/caption] So how do you spot the great ones? Beyond paying attention to Crémants with longer lees ageing, look for special cuvées from the larger producers and for Crémants made by smaller, artisanal producers – and chat to your wine merchant. Right now, Crémant is surfing a wave. The French national federation of Crémant producers reports that in 2024, 114.5 million bottles of Crémant were sold at home and abroad, grown across about 15,000ha in eight appellations. The upward trend in production – amounting to a 47% increase between 2016 and 2024 – is ‘developing in line with market demand’, the federation says. These numbers are dwarfed by Champagne’s 34,200ha and 271 million bottles sold in 2024, but Crémant d’Alsace is now the most popular traditional-method sparkling wine sold in France after Champagne. Crémant works as a value alternative for Champagne – especially if you look to Crémant de Bourgogne, which is often made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – or as a sparkling wine category in its own right, full of wonderful local inflections: an effervescent Jacquère, a sparkling Clairette, a Crémant dosaged with Vin Jaune? Yes please! [/subscriber-content] Krebiehl’s pick: 20 excellent Crémant buys from around France [wine-collection] Related articles Champagne Dhondt-Grellet: The young grower at the top of his game Great-value sparkling wine: 18 bottles to try Vintage English sparkling wine: Panel tasting results

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The rise of Crémant: The top bottles to seek out

Scroll down to see notes and scores for 20 superb French Crémants

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