Agnès Paquet Crémant de Bourgogne
We firmly believe that there is no wrong time of the day or the year to have bubbles, especially when it’s this Agnès Paquet Crémant de Bourgogne. The fine bubbles, high acid, and medium, dry body make this a pleasure to sip. If you’re looking for a great sparkling option for yourself or a crowd, this bottle is the perfect choice! Grown in the same soil and vinified using the same method as champagne, this is a great value alternative to champagne. Agnès Paquet’s Crémant de Bourgogne is a champagne-style sparkling from Burgundy blended with four classic grape varieties of the region, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Gamay, and Aligoté and aged on the lees, giving it a great mouthfeel and a balance of fruit, minerality, and richness.
Crémant wines from Burgundy are made following many of the same strict standards as the Champagne region. What you end up with are deliciously bright and foamy sparkling wines from the world's greatest wine region. If you love Champagne this is the perfect wine to help you start branching out and stepping into the wider world of iconic French bubbles. These sparkling wines come from the same producers and terroirs as some of the world’s most coveted still wines from across the region.
Grapes must be picked by hand into small cases to prevent crushing and oxidation. At pressing a maximum of one hundred liters (26.4 US gallons) may be extracted from 150kg (330 pounds) of fruit, a measure designed to keep the quality of juice high. The second fermentation must take place in the bottle with a minimum of nine months of bottle aging before removing the yeast lees, giving sufficient contact with the lees allows the yeast to break down and give the wine the biscuity characters we expect of a bottle-fermented wine.
Making a name for yourself in the wine world is hard no matter where you are based, but being located in Burgundy makes this nearly impossible without a famed family name to back you. Agnes did not have this. What she does have is hard work and a belief in what she is doing. Agnes, year after year, makes elegant and delicate wines with a real sense of place. The wines drink exactly as they should for the level of designation and village they represent. “Thankfully,” Agnès says “Things have very much changed. There’s a new spirit in Burgundy, and people really do accept aspiring winemakers who aren’t from winemaking families.”
Agnès is a unique figure in the wine world. And has been doing things her own way since she created her estate in 2000. In 2004, she eschewed the use of herbicides and has been farming organically for several years. At first, Agnes did not believe that certification was necessary but she has since changed her mind, for the sake of transparency and quelling any doubts. She applied for the Ecocert certification in 2017, and 2021 marked the first official organic certification for all 13 hectares of Agnès’ vineyards. Agnès has implemented other changes, most notably her style of pruning. She now uses Guyot Poussard, a technique that encourages a bilateral movement of sap within the vines. Milk and whey trials are also underway, with hopes of reducing the amount of sulfur in the vineyards. Sheep have been introduced to the property, and certain parcels are worked mostly by horse. She has increased the height of her canopy and is not hedging some parcels.
We find Agnès Paquet and her wines incredibly refreshing. We love it with Torres Black Truffle Potato chips, but it pairs well with fried foods, salty appetizers, hors d'oeuvres, sandwiches, and focaccia - perfect for all your winter gatherings! Grab a bottle or a case, at $35, I like to keep a bottle on hand for all of my celebrations (you know, like making it through another Tuesday).
