Louis Picamelot Cremant de Bourgogne Rose NV
This Crémant Rosé verges on thrilling, with a cheeky color and sweet seductive notes
Dynamic, with necklace of bubbles, the pink color is soft and intense, round but brisk. Carried by the delicacy of its bubbles, this Crémant wine hints at wild strawberry aromas and offers a seductive fullness. Ideal as an aperitif, it will also be a great match with your summer grilled food and your fruit desserts.
This Crémant de Bourgogne is made with grapes coming from the Côte Chalonnaise and the Côte de Beaune, and 100% from the Pinot Noir grape variety (average yield = 70 hl/ha). The grapes are strictly hand-picked and transported in small perforated cases to keep the whole berries intact, to avoid all risks of oxidation and allow the separation of the juices.
The juice is extracted using a pneumatic press and respecting the following yield: 150 kg of grapes pressed must give no more than 100 litres of base wine. After this, it remains during 24h in our stainless steel vats, for the natural cold settling. Once the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations ended, the wine is bottled with an addition of a sugar and yeast blend. The capped bottles will lay on laths for over 12 months at a temperature between 12 and 15°C during the fermentation in bottle (called “prise de mousse”). At the end of this fermentation, the bottles are put neck down and riddled using gyropalettes in order to concentrate the sediments in the bottle neck. This deposit will be expelled during the disgorgement before adding grape sugar called “liqueur d’expédition” (brut). After the labelling and final closure of the bottle using a cork and a metal cap, this Crémant de Bourgogne should be ideally tasted 1 month after the disgorging date written on the back label.
LOUIS PICAMELOT
Founded in 1926, the Maison Louis Picamelot is today one of the oldest Crémant houses in Burgundy, and without a doubt the most distinguished. Philippe Chautard, Louis Picamelot’s grandson and the present owner has dedicated the house to a level of excellence that is rare by Champagne standards and unheard of in the world of Crémant.
Applied and original, Louis Picamelot Crémants stand out, each in their own way, but above all in their level of personality and perfection. Theirs is a quest to express Burgundian ‘terroir’ in Crémant in the same way that the best still wines from the best vineyards can. To this end, the house owns, vinifies and produces single-vineyard Crémants that show the hand of an artist.
It was not always this way. In 1926, Louis Picamelot was one of the first inhabitants of Rully to invest in the production of “Bourgogne Mousseux”, produced by what was then called the Methode Champenoise. Today, we call it the Traditional Method. This was merchant wine, produced from basic wines, purchased in years of heavy harvest, that were ‘champagned’.
Louis Picamelot had two daughters who married Jean-Baptiste Chautard and Louis Siraudin . They both joined Maison Louis Picamelot in 1949 and 1953. Philippe Chautard, second son of Jean-Baptiste Chautard, joined the house in 1981 and became its manager in 1987.
As late as 1991, the house was buying 100% of the grapes they used. Between 2007 and 2011, in order to ensure control over the quality of the grapes, they acquired just over 10 hectares of vines located in the Côte Chalonnaise and the Côte de Beaune. In order to put the Burgundian “terroir” in the fore, in 2008 they first produced a Crémant de Bourgogne with grapes coming from only one plot. The “Terroir de Chazot” was born. Other single-vineyard wines followed.
Today the house still buys some grapes, but only from selected producers and only in organic production. And the vineyard holdings that they own have been chosen especially for their individual expressions of Burgundy ‘terroir’. Notably, every bottle of Louis Picamelot Cremant is from a single vintage wine; there are no reserve wines, no blending of vintages; no ‘house style’.
In 2000, Phillipe Chautard acquired an old quarry in the village (4000 m²) which was brilliantly transformed into a modern winery, literally carved out of the rock. The green roof and the stone walls of the old quarry offer a naturally controlled temperature, which fits well into the house’s environmental approach.
This new cellar heralds a new direction and the progress of a rising Crémant de Bourgogne producer which skyrockets towards quality. The place, which is both a production, storage and promotion tool, is part of a natural setting. Rock, concrete and oak were used to build a site at a cost of € 3 million. Enough to initiate a wine tourism approach for this 2000 m² cellar in the center of Rully. The building is today the showcase for the development of direct sales.
CREMANT DE BOURGOGNE
BOURGOGNE
Sparkling Bourgogne made its entrance into history when it was lauded by the poet Alfred de Musset (1820-1857) in his “Secrètes pensées de Raphaël”. It was first made at the beginning of the 19th century at Chablis, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Rully and Tonnerre, and since then has not ceased to sparkle. It was for a long time the practice to make effervescent versions of prestigious Burgundian Grands Crus but the AOC status granted in 1975 laid down strict conditions for its production on the basis of meticulously-applied traditional skills to achieve high-quality vinification. Only whites and rosés qualify for the appellation. They may be blanc de blancs (from white grapes) or blanc de noirs (from white-juiced black grapes). Most are classed as brut or, less often, demi-sec. The production area is the same as that for the appellation Bourgogne.
Wines
A wine bursting with youth and audacity. In its youth, it is freshness and vigor. Given time, it acquires the stateliness of a great wine. The brut reflects its lively and clear-cut personality. As demi-sec, vivacity yields to smoothness and a new taste impression of sweetness.The blanc is generally white-gold in color. The bubbles are fine and form a delicate necklace around the edge of the glass. Floral, citrusy and mineral aromas are matched in the mouth by freshness and elegance plus a degree of acidity that is the key to a proper balance between aromatic power and the desired degree of lightness. The blanc de blancs carries the perfume of white flowers, citrus fruits or green apples. With time, it will develop toasty notes and notes of pitted-fruits such as apricot or peach. The blanc de noirs exhales aromas of small fruits (cherry, blackcurrant, raspberry). In the mouth, powerful, long and persistent. Time adds charm and warmth, with aromas of dried fruits and, perhaps, honey, spices or nutmeg. The rosé, made from Pinot Noir grapes with or without a proportion of Gamay, is pink-gold in color. This is a delicate wine with subtle aromas of red fruits.
Terroirs
The grapes from which the ‘vins de base’ for Crémant de Bourgogne are made come from a wide variety of soils in vineyard districts throughout Bourgogne.They range from the chalky subsoil of the Joigny district in the north to the granites of southern Bourgogne, via the limestones and marls of the Côtes where most of the wines of this appellation are grown.
Color
Whites and rosés: main varieties Pinot Noir, Chardonnay (minimum 30%)
Secondary varieties: Gamay (20% maximum), Aligoté, Melon, Sacy
Production surface area
1 hectare (ha) = 2.4 acres
326.44 ha (including 201.54 ha Premier Cru)
Food
Although Crémant de Bourgogne is a perfect pre-dinner drink, this in no way takes away from the fact that it is also a perfect accompaniment to food. The blanc chimes with main dishes such as stewed poultry.With the blanc de blancs, try scallops or river fish. The blanc de noirs makes a great match for braised beef, or snails, and is the ideal partner for poultry. The rosé is a good choice as a dessert wine with its powerful floral aromas which go perfectly with ice cream and bring a touch of freshness to the close of a meal. It is ideal with pastries and its fruit scents are unbeatable with a red-fruit sorbet.