Chavin Zéro Blanc de Blancs Effervescent

The Chavin Zéro Blanc de Blancs Effervescent cuvée is made by the house of Chavin, based in Béziers, in the Hérault, in the heart of the Languedoc. Sold under the name Vin de France désalcoolisé (dealcoholised), it draws on wines from the south of France, where the sunny, dry Mediterranean climate, cooled by sea breezes, favours healthy, aromatic grapes. This dealcoholised sparkling wine is made exclusively from Chardonnays selected for their freshness, the key to balance and elegance once the alcohol has been removed.

Several fresh-profiled Chardonnays are blended, designed from the outset to keep their balance after dealcoholisation. Part of the wine is aged in wood, adding smoothness, while another part is kept in cold settling on its gross lees to gain aromatic richness and body. The whole is then aged on fine lees with regular bâtonnage, before being dealcoholised and made sparkling. The result is an alcohol-free sparkling wine, structured and with no added flavourings.

This wine reveals notes of reinette apple, pear, lemon, ripe apricot, greengage, nectarine, toast and roasted hazelnut. The golden-yellow colour with green glints heralds a delicate, expressive nose, where white-fleshed fruit meets a toasty touch typical of Chardonnay. The attack is lively and generous, the texture pure and elegant, carried by fine bubbles, and the long, gourmand finish ends on a pleasant saline touch.

The cradle of wine culture in Western Europe, France owes its first vines to the Greeks of Phocaea, who settled around Marseille some twenty-six centuries ago, before the Romans spread viticulture along the Rhône and the Garonne and as far as Champagne. In the Middle Ages, Cistercian and Benedictine monks cleared the slopes of Burgundy and patiently mapped out the climats, laying the foundations of the notion of terroir. The 19th century brought the glory of the classifications, then the disaster of phylloxera, which wiped out the vineyards before they were rebuilt on American rootstocks; the creation of the appellations d'origine contrôlée in the 1930s then set the rules that would inspire the whole world. Today, France vies every year with Italy and Spain for first place in world production by volume and remains the ultimate benchmark of the Old World, as much for its age-worthy wines as for its winemaking models. Vineyards cover almost the entire country, from the cool north of Champagne and Alsace to the Mediterranean shores of Languedoc and Provence, by way of the oceanic climates of Bordeaux, the Loire and the South-West, continental Burgundy, the steep slopes of the northern Rhône and the high-altitude valleys of Savoie and the Jura. This mosaic of soils – limestone, schist, gravel or rounded pebbles – explains the extraordinary diversity of styles. As for grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate Bordeaux and produce structured reds, Pinot Noir is the signature of Burgundian finesse, Syrah of the depth of the Rhône, while Grenache, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Mourvèdre cover every register, from easy-drinking wines to wines for long ageing. Among the whites, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Riesling and Viognier offer expressions ranging from lively and mineral to unctuous, all the way to great sweet wines. A land of benchmarks and constant discoveries, France remains the compass for wine lovers the world over.