ShowViniste The Citizen Wine Blog

The party often is accompanied by small bubbles, effervescent, sparkling, aromatic. While many swear by the champagne, my reason and my need for curiosity led me to discover the excellence of Crémant . I wanted you to profile a winemaker very endearing, curled up in his hometown, near Limoux, where sparkling wine was invented (before the champagne!).

I knew several Roquetaillade. One was a castle in the Gironde. The latter, near Limoux in the Aude , has a remote village on a rock, perched 350 meters above sea level, surrounded by 120 hectares of vineyards. Here, no more than 16 inhabitants per square kilometer. There's no crowd. I wonder if there is no more wind up there on the ridge, facing the village, how many souls who spin in these narrow alleys, and dark in winter.

Near the castle (there is always a castle and a church as you know, in a commune in France), in serried ranks, other stuck together, cellars, wineries often let escape, sometimes visitors from one day worn by small invisible bubbles.
In the land of Limoux, Blanquette and Crémant is king!

At Gilles Azam, winemaker at the Highlands area, the Crémant is called Josephine. This is the first name of his daughter. Bubbly, certainly!
Extending the organic certification of its vines and its grapes, it continues up to this discipline, this respect for life, down to the cellar and some vintages. Bio is doing more work for already over other, but do it on the Crémant is really angry, make an effort.
Josephine is a blend of specific chardonnay , chenin and mauzac . Usually for the sparkling , the Chenin is set aside. Gilles has a weakness for Chenin .
The Champagne method requires time: 9 months in barrel followed by 24 months of fermentation in the bottle resting on the slats. More slides into the fermentation time and the bubbles will be fine. It is only after these two years completed, Gilles disgorged bottles. In other words, once the fermentation is over, the dead lees were deposited on the glass wall. It will then within a few days, switch bottles, ass up, to drive down the lees into the neck. Rotary motion of the cylinder accelerates the slide lees, as and as she recovers in reverse. Gilles referred to as "poignettes", performed several times daily, at regular intervals, which makes the bottle each time 1/6 turn. The hand of the winemaker!
Since its installation in 1999 in his native village, he bought the cellar of his grandfather and tries to find the size of the estate of his great-great-great grandfather, well before the Great War. Gilles keeps feet on the ground. As he says: "I am in Bio because I'm trying to make as clean as possible ... and above all we must not disappoint his client." With 7 acres of vines, the Highlands produce 20% of Josephine ( Cremant ), 45% of Louis (AOC Limoux white) and 20% of Maxim (AOC Limoux red) and the rest in wine country, roughly 25,000 bottles.
I took a few ...