Limoux

Question 1

Limoux

Answer 1

Both Limoux and Die have a long and proud tradition of sparkling wine production. However, they are also the source of much confusion over production methods.

Question 2

There are three permitted sparkling wines….

Answer 2

• Cremant de Limoux
• Blanquette de Limoux
• Blanquette de Limoux Méthode Ancestrale

The first two are commercially the most important whereas the methode ancestrale wines are only made in very small volumes.

Question 3

Location- Limoux

Answer 3

Languedoc

Question 4

Climate- Limoux

Answer 4

The region is exposed to both Atlantic and Mediterranean influences and the importance of their influence divides the area into distinct zones. Altitude is a key factor.

Question 5

Vineyard- Limoux

Answer 5

Cremant de Limoux: Minimum alcohol required is 9.5% abv.

Question 6

Grape Varieties

Answer 6

Cremant de Limoux

• Principal Varieties- Chardonnay (50% min) Chenin Blanc (between 10 to 40%), Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc (90% max)
• Secondary Varieties- Mauzac and Pinot Noir (20% max), Pinot Noir (15% max)

Blanquette de Limoux
- Mauzac (90% minimum), Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc

Blanquette de Limoux Méthode Ancestrale
- Mauzac (100%)

Question 7

Winery- Limoux

Answer 7

Cremant de Limoux: Like a cremant

Blanquette de Limoux:

• Traditional method
• Maximum 9 month on the lees
• 3.5 bar minimum
• Produced in Brut and Demi- Sec styles

Blanquette de Limoux Méthode Ancestrale

• No enrichment or concentration of the must is permitted
• The wine starts fermentation in tank
• Partly fermented must is bottled. Liqueur de triage is not permitted.
• The wine continues to ferment in the sealed bottle and must reach a pressure of at least 3 bar.
• The wine must stay on the lees for a minimum of 2 months.
• The yeast can be removed by disgorgement or transfer method
• Liqueur d’ expedition is not permitted
• 6-7% actual alcohol and residual sugar of approximately +50g/L

Question 8

Winery- Limoux

Answer 8

Yeast retention, residual sugar and stability

Unlike wines made by similar method in Die these wines are not commercially significant and there is little clarity in the exisiting sources as to exactly how they are made.

The wine is typically reported as being cloudy and sweet and given the limited availability of these wine around the world it is hard to ascertain whether this is representative of current production. However, the legislation does allow for disgorgment.

For those wines that remain cloudy and sweet it is most likely that the atmospheric pressure in the bottle stops the fermentation. Typically yeast used in bottle fermentation will stop fermenting if they are exposed to pressures of around 6-7 bar. Normally, nutrients are exhausted before their becomes an issue, as in champagne. However if the yeast is sufficiently sensitive to pressure they can stop fermenting before all the sugars are exhausted leaving a sweet wine with a relatively low alcohol. With no disgorgement this situation should remain stable as long as the pressure remains constant. Whether a winemaker or wine buyer would feel comfortable that such a wine could remain in a stable state or whether consumers would be happy with cloudiness are, of course, technical and personal choices that individuals need to make for themselves.

Question 9

Important Trade Structures- Limoux

Answer 9

The cooperative movement is important here as it is across the south of France. Production is dominated by the cooperative known as Less Cave de Sieur d’ Arques.

Question 10

Limoux

Answer 10

Small town and appellation in the eastern Pyrenean foothills in southern France. For centuries it has been devoted to the production of white wines that would sparkle naturally after a second fermentation during the spring. They became known as Blanquette de Limoux, Blanquette meaning simply ‘white’ in Occitan. Locals claim that fermentation in bottle was developed here long before it was consciously practised in champagne, dating the production of cork-stoppered sparkling wines at the Abbey of St-Hilaire from 1531 (Limoux is just north of cataluña, a natural home of the cork oak) although Stevenson casts doubt on both the date and claims that the wine was sparkling. The region’s vineyards are so much higher, cooler, and further from Mediterranean influence than any other Languedoc appellation (even Côtes de la malepère to its immediate north) that many are Atlantic-influenced even though they are just inland from the corbières hills. Within the region there are distinctly different zones, according to factors such as elevation, soil types, and the influence of the Atlantic or Mediterranean. The grape used traditionally was the mauzac , called locally Blanquette, but increasing amounts of Chardonnay and, to a lesser extent, chenin blanc have been planted so that in the 1980s the Limoux vineyards were much valued as one of southern France’s very few sources of chardonnay grapes from mature vines. Still wines made from them were then in great demand, especially for export markets. This international success was cleverly capitalized upon by Toques et Clochers, an annual charity auction of different Chardonnay barrel samples, inspired by the famous hospices de beaune auction but embellished by the involvement of some of France’s most famous chefs. These often lean, oak-aged Chardonnays regularly fetched prices far in excess of their then classification as vins de pays so the Limoux appellation was thoroughly overhauled in 1993. It now encompasses still whites made mainly from Chardonnay (although Chenin Blanc and Mauzac may be included, or may be the main or sole variety), with, unusually, compulsory barrel fermentation. In 2005, a red wine Limoux appellation was added, with Merlot compulsorily making up at least 50% of the blend, and Côt (Malbec), Syrah, and Grenache constituting at least 30%. Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc may play a part—truly an Atlantic and Mediterranean blend. Such (relatively light) wines used to be sold as IGP de la Haute Vallée de l’Aude, a name now more commonly encountered on the region’s most promising red wine grape, Pinot Noir. But Limoux is essentially a sparkling wine town. Blanquette de Limoux is the region’s most famous product, grown on 635 ha/1,568 acres of vineyard in 2012, sparkling wine made up of at least 90% Mauzac, although Chardonnay and/or Chenin Blanc may play a minor part. The Crémant de Limoux appellation was devised in 1990 for less rustic, more internationally designed sparkling wines. In 2012, some 846 ha/2,090 acres were devoted to the production of Crémant de Limoux. See crémant for more details. Limoux’s distinctly marginal speciality is Blanquette Méthode Ancestrale (see sparkling winemaking), a sweeter, often slightly cloudy, less fizzy sparkling wine made exclusively from Mauzac grown on 65 ha/160 acres in 2012 and left to ferment a second time in bottle without subsequent disgorgement of the resultant sediment. Like the gaillac Mousseux made from Mauzac by the méthode gaillacoise with similar regard for tradition and disdain for technology, these hand-crafted wines are low in alcohol, high in Mauzac’s old apple-peel flavours, and can taste remarkably like a superior sweet cider. Limoux’s sparkling wine business is dominated by the dynamic local co-operative, which sells a range of bottlings under such names as Aimery and Sieur d’Arques, but there are also some fine individual estates in the pretty hills here.