André Delorme Terroir D’exception Crémant De Bourgogne NV

A real surprise packet from France, this well-made chardonnay sparkling wine opens with a mature, complex nose that combines candied peel, lanolin, toast and a whisper of nutty aldehyde. It’s powerful, rich and yeasty, and the palate shows lovely flow and depth of flavour, enhanced by perfectly measured dosage to give a thread of sweetness. A wine of great length and drive to suit food like terrines and pâtés. 

Top Wine Profile

A Champagne Echo
Good Crémant de Bourgogne is a great buy if you want some of Champagne’s panache without the Champagne price tag. This chardonnay-based example comes from vineyards in the Côte Chalonnaise, to the south of Burgundy’s quality heartland, and it’s made at André Delorme’s impressive cellars in Rully, an area perhaps better known in export markets for chardonnay table wine than for fizz. André Delorme was founded in 1942, but Crémant de Bourgogne’s history goes back to the early 19th century.

The style wasn’t given its own Appellation Contrôleé until 1975, officially recognising and defining its qualities. Winemaking faithfully follows the traditional method of bottle fermentation pioneered in Champagne, and the grapes used are the same – chardonnay and pinot noir. It’s a combination with a real echo of Champagne about it, a fact well illustrated by this delicious top sparkling wine.

• Other Sparkling - Sparkling
• Burgundy - France
• NZ $34 - $38
• top 10
• View the full Sparkling 2014 tasting results