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Hi! I am Mark Middlebrook. I am here in the Paul Marcus Wines cellar and in this segment,
I am going to talk about Cremant. That is, sparkling wines made outside of the Champagne
region but still made in France. So, these are made in the same style as champagne it
is just they are not made in the region of Champagne itself. And, sometimes they are
made from different grape varieties that do not grow in Champagne. The first example I
have is this Cremant De Loire. So, it is a sparkling wine from the Loire Valley west
of Paris from the producer Julien Fouet. And, in this case, it is a different set of grape
varieties than you would find in Champagne. Specially, Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc,
the two main grape varieties that grow in the Loire. Or, two of them. And then, the
second example I have is a Vouvray Petillant. They do not, in Vouvray, this is a village
also in the Loire valley, that they do not use the word Cremant. So, they choose to call
it Petillant or sparkling. And, so this is made from Chenin Blanc grapes again, from
the producer Domaine Vingeau-Chevreau. Now, working our way east, east of Champagne even,
we get to Alsace. And, the Allimant-Laugner's Cremant D'Alasace. So again, Cremant sparkling
wine D'Alsace from Alsace. From the region of Alsace. And, this happens to be a pink
wine. A sparkling rose. You cannot quite see through the glass as well but, it is a wonderful
good value sparkling roses made in other parts of France like Alsace. And finally, a Cremant
De Bourgogne, a sparkling wine from Burgundy. Again, made in this particular case, made
into a rose by Domaine Des Roches. But, this producer also makes a very fine white sparkling
wine. And, their sparkling wines do come from the same grape varieties that are used in
Champagne, grown in Champagne that is. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. So, I like to drink these
partly because they just taste great and they are fun and the flavor profiles are a little
different in each one because of the region where they are grown and the grape varieties
that are used in some cases. But, also because they are really good values in sparkling wine.
A Cremant, in general, costs a third to a half what a good champagne will cost. So,
anything like that that puts more sparkling wine on my table more often is a good thing.