Crémant is French sparkling wine made by the same method as Champagne, in a French wine region that is not Champagne. The traditional method is identical: a still base wine, a second fermentation sealed inside the bottle, months on the lees, then disgorgement and a cork under a wire cage. Only the place and the grapes change.
There are eight crémant appellations in France, and each one uses whatever its region grows. That is the whole idea. A Crémant de Loire is Chenin Blanc, a Crémant d’Alsace is mostly Pinot Blanc, a Crémant de Bourgogne is Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Same technique, eight different starting points.
Bourgogne
Alsace
Savoie
The eight crémant appellations
Crémant is not one wine. It is a method licensed to eight places, and the map shows how far apart they are: the Loire in the west, Alsace on the German border, Limoux in the far south, the Jura and Savoie in the mountains.
Scroll the table sideways to see both columns
| Appellation | What it is made from, and what to expect |
|---|---|
| Crémant d’Alsace | Mostly Pinot Blanc and Auxerrois, with Riesling, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir permitted. The largest of the eight by volume. Dry, orchard-fruited, and the most widely seen abroad. |
| Crémant de Loire | Chenin Blanc above all, often with Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay. High acid, quince and chalk, and the one that ages most like a serious white. |
| Crémant de Bourgogne | Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, the Champagne grapes on Burgundian ground. The closest of the eight to Champagne in taste, and often the best value in the category. |
| Crémant de Bordeaux | Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle for whites, Merlot and Cabernet for rosé. Softer and rounder than the northern crémants. |
| Crémant de Limoux | Chardonnay and Chenin with Mauzac, in the Aude hills. Limoux has the oldest sparkling wine tradition in France, older than Champagne’s. |
| Crémant du Jura | Chardonnay, plus the local Poulsard, Trousseau and Savagnin. Nutty and firm, carrying a little of the Jura’s own character. |
| Crémant de Die | Clairette, in the Drôme. The rarest of the eight and the one you are least likely to meet. Not to be confused with Clairette de Die, its sweeter Muscat-based neighbour. |
| Crémant de Savoie | Jacquère and Altesse, in the Alps. The newest of the eight, created in 2015, and still small. |
Crémant exists outside France too
Crémant de Luxembourg is a protected name in its own right, made to the same kind of rules just over the border. The word itself once meant something different: a crémant was a lightly sparkling Champagne, bottled at lower pressure than a full spumante-strength wine. When the modern appellations were created the Champenois gave the word up, and it became the name for traditional-method sparkling from everywhere else in France.
How crémant differs from Champagne
The method is the same, so the differences are about place, time and grapes rather than technique.
Scroll the table sideways to see both columns
| Crémant | Champagne | |
|---|---|---|
| Method | Traditional method, second fermentation in the bottle | Identical |
| Where | Eight French regions, none of them Champagne | One delimited region in northeast France |
| Grapes | Whatever the region grows, so it changes with the appellation | Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier |
| Minimum lees ageing | Nine months | Fifteen months for non-vintage, thirty-six for vintage |
| Harvest | Hand-picked in whole bunches, required | Hand-picked in whole bunches, required |
| Closure | Cork and wire cage | Cork and wire cage |
| Price | Lower, because the land and the name cost less | Carries the cost of the most expensive vineyard land in the world |
Shorter lees ageing is the real difference in the glass. Time on the lees is what gives Champagne its bread and pastry weight, so a nine-month crémant is usually fresher and more direct, and a producer who ages longer closes the gap.
What crémant tastes like
Eight regions and a dozen grapes mean there is no single crémant flavour. These four are the notes the method itself tends to put there, whichever appellation the bottle came from.
Brioche
Months on the lees, in a shorter dose than Champagne gets. Present, not dominant
Green apple
The acidity. Crémant is grown in cool places for the same reason Champagne is
White peach
Orchard fruit, and the clearest marker of which region the bottle came from
Blossom
White flowers, strongest in Alsace and Savoie where the grapes are aromatic
- It is fresher than Champagne, not weaker
- Nine months on the lees against fifteen means less autolysis character, so fruit and acid sit further forward. That is a different wine rather than a lesser one, and it is why crémant works better than Champagne with a first course.
- The region tells you more than the word crémant does
- A Chenin Blanc crémant from the Loire and a Pinot Blanc crémant from Alsace have almost nothing in common on the palate. Read the appellation, not the category.
- Most of it is dry
- The sweetness scale is the same as Champagne’s, and the term is on the label: Brut Nature, Extra Brut, Brut, Extra Dry and so on. Brut is by far the most common.
- Rosé crémant is common and taken seriously
- Every appellation permits it, and most make one. In the Loire it is Cabernet Franc, in Bordeaux Merlot, in Burgundy Pinot Noir. They are dry, not to be confused with the sweeter pink sparklers.
How to open and serve crémant
- Chill it to about 8C. Three hours in the fridge, twenty minutes in ice and water. Crémant leans on its freshness, so serve it colder than you would a Champagne you have paid a lot for.
- Thumb on the cork before the cage comes off. This is full bottle pressure, the same as Champagne. Six half-turns loosens the wire.
- Turn the bottle, hold the cork. At 45 degrees, ease it out quietly. A bang costs you pressure you wanted in the glass.
- Use a white wine glass. A flute hides the aromatics, and aromatics are what an Alsace or Savoie crémant has most of.
- Open it early in the meal. Nine months of lees and bright acidity make it a better aperitif and first-course wine than a heavier Champagne.
It is the house sparkling wine in most of France for a reason. Oysters and shellfish with a Loire or Burgundy bottle, charcuterie and soft cheese with Alsace, fried food with anything in the category.
Common questions about crémant
- Is crémant just cheap Champagne?
- No. It is the same method in a different place. Champagne costs more partly because its land is among the most expensive farmland anywhere, and partly because the big names run luxury brands whose costs the bottle carries. Crémant has neither, and that is most of the gap. It says nothing about how carefully either wine was made.
- Why can crémant not be called Champagne?
- Because Champagne is a protected place name. The method is free to use anywhere; the word is not. That is why the same technique is called Crémant in France, Cava in Spain, Franciacorta or Trentodoc in Italy, and Traditional Method almost everywhere else.
- Is crémant dry?
- Usually. Most is Brut, and the sweetness term on the label means exactly what it means on a Champagne label. Brut Nature and Extra Brut are the driest.
- Can crémant age?
- Some can, particularly Chenin Blanc from the Loire and bottles that were given longer on the lees than the minimum. Most is made to drink within a few years of release, and that is how it is best.
- What is the difference between crémant and Prosecco?
- The method. Crémant ferments a second time inside the bottle and rests on its lees for months; Prosecco ferments a second time in a pressurised tank and is filtered off its lees quickly. That is why crémant tastes bready and Prosecco tastes of pear and flowers.
- Which crémant should I start with?
- Bourgogne if you want the closest thing to Champagne, Loire if you want high acid and a wine that will age, Alsace if you want the most aromatic and the easiest to find.
Try a crémant
We carry crémant from Alsace, Burgundy and Savoie. Each listing names the appellation, the grapes and the producer, so you can tell which of the eight regions you are drinking before you open it.
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