Die Flashcards
Die
There are three different sparkling wines that legally permitted in Die:
- Clairette de Die (a dry to off dry wine made from Claudette)
- Clairette de Die Methode Dioise Ancestrale (a sweet wine made from a Muscat dominated blend).
- Cremant de Die (a dry to off dry wine made from a Clairette dominated blend).
Location- Die
Northern Rhone
Vineyard- Die
High altitude vineyards, some up to 700m, with a chalk soil which is good for water retention in dry villages.
Grape Varieties- Die
Clairette de Die
- Clairette (100%)
Clairette de Die Methode Doise Ancestrale
- Muscat Blanc a Petit Grains (at least 75%), Clairette
Winery- Die
Clairette de Die
- Transfer method. Second fermentation in bottle. The yeast is removed by disgorgment and the wine is filtered under pressure from one bottle to another
- Minimum 9 months on the lees
- Maximum alcohol 13.5% abv
- Residual sugar equal to or less than 15g/L
- 3.5 bar minimum pressure
Clairette de Die Methode Doise Ancestrale
- The must is partially cool- fermented and bottled
- Liqueur de triage is forbidden
- The same fermentation then continue in bottle
- The wine must be on the lees for at least 4 months.
- Fermentation stops naturally
- Yeast is removed by disgorgment, and the wine is filtered under pressure from one bottle to another
- Residual sugar equal to or greater than 35g/L, (liqueur d’ expedition is forbidden).
- Most are sold at between 7-9% abv
- 3 bar minimum pressure
Key producer websites state that the fermentation stops in the bottle during Methode Dioise Ancestral as a result of the build up of pressure. Yeast removal is the norm. This is to be expected for large scale commercially successful wine where most consumers are unlikely to be tolerant of cloudiness.
Important Trade Structures- Die
Production is dominated by the dynamic Jaillance cooperative that is owned by 250 of the 300 growers in the region.
Clairette De Die
Pair of appellations for sparkling white wines centred on the town of die on the Drôme tributary east of the Rhône between Valence and Montélimar. According to pliny, wine has been made here since Roman times. Die’s gently fizzing wines may pre-date those of Champagne. Two very different sorts of sparkling Clairette de Die are made. The dry version, Clairette de Die Brut, is made from clairette grapes by the transfer method (see sparkling winemaking) and has an alcoholic strength of between 11 and 12%. It differs from crémant de Die in that the latter must be made from whole grapes and made sparkling by the traditional method whereas Clairette de Die Brut may be separated from the lees of the second fermentation by filtration rather than disgorgement. Clairette de Die Tradition is more distinctive. It is refreshingly grapey and gently fizzy, made from at least 75% muscat blanc à petits grains, the rest Clairette, by the méthode dioise ancestrale (see sparkling winemaking). The local co-operative, geographically and historically justified in calling itself the Cellier Hannibal, has been responsible for dynamizing the appellation and makes three in every four bottles carrying it. Local still reds and whites may qualify as châtillon-en-diois.
Clairette
Is a much-used name for southern French white grape varieties. Clairette Ronde, for example, is the Languedoc name for the ubiquitous ugni blanc, and various Clairettes serve as synonyms for the much finer bourboulenc. True Clairette Blanche, however, is very old Languedoc variety grown on a total of 2,274 ha/5,617 acres of French vineyard in 2011, being allowed into a wide range of southern Rhône, Provençal, and Languedoc appellations, even lending its name to three (see below). Clairette is a traditional variety well suited to poor, dry soils, for long grown in what Galet calls ‘the land of the olive tree’. Its small, thick-skinned grapes ripen relatively late, but can ripen dangerously fast at the end of the growing season. In the southern Rhône, it is particularly popular for adding aroma and acidity to a blend, not least with the fatter grenache blanc. Clairette is widely distributed throughout the eastern Midi, especially in the Gard, where it produces clairette de bellegarde and in the Hérault for clairette du languedoc, two of the Languedoc’s earliest controlled appellations, presumably because these white wines were so unlike the typical produce of the Midi. Its other stronghold is the Drôme département since Clairette is the main ingredient in clairette de die and crémant de die. Partly because it was an ingredient in picardan, the variety spread far and wide, including to southern russia, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. At one time there were sizeable plantings in Algeria. It is known as Clairette Blanche in South Africa, where it was once as widely planted as in France. Some old plantings can still be found.
Mauzac
Is a declining white grape in south west france, especially in its birthplace gaillac and limoux, where it is the traditional and still principal vine variety. It produces relatively aromatic wines which are usually blended, with Len de l’El around Gaillac and with Chenin and Chardonnay in Limoux. France’s total area of Mauzac had fallen to 1,806 ha/4,461 acres by 2011. Thanks to energetic winemakers such as Robert Plageoles, since the late 1980s there has been a revival of interest in Gaillac’s Mauzac, which comes in several different hues, sweetness levels, and degrees of fizziness. During the 1970s and 1980s in Limoux, total plantings of Mauzac rose but have declined as the appellation, for both still and fizzy wines, has been invaded by Chardonnay. The vine, whose yields can vary enormously according to site, buds and ripens late and grapes were traditionally picked well into autumn so that musts fermented slowly and gently in the cool Limoux winters, ready to referment in bottle in the spring. Today Mauzac tends to be picked much earlier, preserving its naturally high acidity but sacrificing much of its particular flavour reminiscent of the skin of shrivelled apples, before being subjected to the usual sparkling winemaking techniques. Some gently sparkling Gaillacs are still made by the traditional méthode gaillacoise, however, just as a small portion of Limoux’s Blanquette is made by the méthode ancestrale. Mauzac Noir is much rarer and unrelated.
