Term · Winemaking
Sparkling wine, crémant
A wine with bubbles, whose carbon dioxide comes from a fermentation; crémant is one appellation form of it.
A sparkling wine is a wine whose carbon dioxide, produced by a fermentation, creates an excess pressure of at least 3 bar at 20 °C when the bottle is opened. A semi-sparkling wine has less, between 1 and 2.5 bar.
Crémant is an appellation sparkling wine made by a second fermentation in the bottle, then aged for at least nine months on its lees: Crémant d'Alsace, de Bourgogne, de Loire or de Limoux.
The méthode ancestrale involves a single fermentation, started in vat and finished in bottle, as in Limoux, Gaillac or the Bugey.