Favorite Non-Champagne French Fizz

There are some excellent and interesting bubblies produced in France but outside of Champagne. If you're not drinking Champagne, what do you like?

Some years ago, I was in Savigny-Les-Beaune and had the great joy of tasting several extremely good sparkling Burgundies made by the traditional Champagne method (whatever they're legally allowed to call itself these days). Same quality as your generic Brut Champagne, but at a fraction of the price. What an eye opener! Best bang-for-the-buck of sparkling wine that I know of.

-Paul W.

I am a real fan of Maison Vergnes Le Berceau Brut Blanquette de Limoux. It is made primarily from the Mauzac grape and earned its own appellation back in 1990. [Fact courtesy of the Oxford Companion to Wine.]

I am a real fan of Maison Vergnes Le Berceau Brut Blanquette de Limoux. It is made primarily from the Mauzac grape

I too like Blanquette de Limoux, and it was a favourite of Thomas Jefferson.

If I'm not drinking Champagne then I'd prefer a fizz that is not trying to be indistinguishable from it, so a sparkler made from Mauzac is a candidate and my choice is from Domaine Rives Blanques -- which is sold at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.

A most interesting fizz I recently had was another Mauzac but from Gaillac. This was made in an older method that predates methode champenoise. In this wine fermentation is halted before bottling, then letting fermentation continue in the bottle. Unfortunately this leads to sediment and (in this tasting) quite a large bottle variation.

I just love that Huet Vouvray Petillant

[Robin Garr]

There are some excellent and interesting bubblies produced in France but outside of Champagne. If you're not drinking Champagne, what do you like?

Tough question, because most of them are good. Based on my own experience, the decision among Crément de Bourgogne, de la Loire, d'Alsace and Blanquette de Limoux rests pretty much upon which one's in my glass.

I ended up voting for Crémant de la Loire, though, just because swapping in Chenin Blanc makes for a nice variation from Champers; and as Bill notes, Huet's Vouvray Petillant is worthy.

I often think as I drink this stuff that, as much as I love Champagne, the QPR difference between the best Crémants and the run of non-vintage house Champagnes reveals the sad truth that Champagne is generally overpriced.

[James Roscoe]

A cremant de Bourgogne is our house fizz, Louis Bouliot (sic). They make excellent stuff for under $14.

Cremant de Bourgogne is our house fizz, Louis Bouliot (sic). They make excellent stuff for under $14.

James,

If your talking about the Cremant de Bourgogne Rosé Perle d'Aurore by Louis Bouillot, I concur. We had a bottle and liked it so much that I went back and picked up three more. I believe we paid just a hair under $14 for it locally.

[James Roscoe]

Cremant de Bourgogne is our house fizz, Louis Bouliot (sic). They make excellent stuff for under $14.

James,

If your talking about the Cremant de Bourgogne Rosé Perle d'Aurore by Louis Bouillot, I concur. We had a bottle and liked it so much that I went back and picked up three more. I believe we paid just a hair under $14 for it locally.

That's the stuff! We also like the Bland de Noir. It has a nice salmon color to it. There regular bottling at $12 is nice, but we pay the extra two bucks for the good stuff.