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Thursday, 05 April 2007 |
With champagne production stretched to the
limits, many other countries and areas in
France are cashing in on producing quality
sparkling wine. The UK and Germany are leading
the way in the upturn in consumption – the
former drank around 63 million bottles in 2001.
By 2005 the figure had reached 90 million, set
to rise by another 7.9% by 2011.
All production methods, except perhaps
carbonic maceration (the infamous méthode
pompe bicyclette), are showing good returns. Due
to automation and modern production techniques,
prices remain reasonable – a far cry from the
labour-intensive processes of 40 years ago.
In those days the second fermentation took
place in a bottle sealed with a cork and a spring
metal clip – agrafe. The stacking of wines in
the cellars was done by hand. The remueur –
who riddled the bottles to shake down the
sediment – was the most expensive blue-collar
worker in the wine trade. A lot of disgorging of
the sediment was still done manually without
going through the brine ice-bath, meaning
additional care when disgorging. Demonstrating
what could go wrong in the process was the star
event for many a trade trip. You were told that
once the agrafe and cork were removed the
bottle was ‘live’. Giving the bottle a firm tap
with the disgorging key, the demonstrator
would prove his point.
So what better to drink this Easter, a time
for celebration, than sparkling wine? Nowadays
the choice is vast – for style, colour, sweetness,
method of production, country of origin and, of
course, price.
Between the Northern and Southern parts of
the Rhône Valley region, in the département of
the Drôme, the small town of Die gives its
name to a variation of the traditional method –
the Méthode Dioise (or sometimes Méthode
ancienne or ancestrale). For the alcohol
conscious, it is an ideal wine, having only
between 7.5 and 8% alcohol. The area also
produces traditional method wines from 100%
Clairette with the AC of Crémant de Die (until
1999 Clairette de Die).
Yet another of the excellent independent
vignerons, Bérard et Maubouché at Saillans
have 30ha of vines in the Drôme Valley
growing grapes for producing both these styles
of wines. The Domaine les Trois Becs has a
fine reputation for quality. The cellars are on
the main D93 from Valence to Die itself, with
adequate parking, so it is an ideal stopping off
point to sample and buy these wines and
regional produce.
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Downtime 
