As a young man, when Alsatian wine producer Julien Dopff visited the 1900 Paris Expo, he would have joined millions of other visitors from around the world in admiring not just the Eiffel Tower – built for the 1889 Expo but still the star attraction 11 years alter – but also such technological marvels as the escalator. What most caught Julien’s attention, however, was another marvel, also being featured at one of the exhibits: Champagne. 

Champagne became Juliien’s obsession, and he soon began making it himself back home. He used the same laborious methode champenoise, with a secondary fermentation producing bubbles in each individual bottle. But the grapes he used were from Alsace, not Champagne, so the sparkling wine he made was not Champagne. And you can be sure that when sparkling wine from Alsace became legally recognized by the AOC laws in 1976, the Champenois made sure that it did not possess a name that could at all be confused with their own precious liquid. So they called it Cremant d’Alsace.

Today, Cremant d’Alsace is the second-most consumed sparkling wine in France, and it offers incredible value. The quality across the AOC is very high, thanks to laws requiring dedication of vineyards to sparkling wine production, and limitations on how much pressed juice can be used. 

But at Domaine Bechtold, the quality is especially high. Bechtold is a specialist in the village of Dahlenheim. It’s an out-of-the-way Alsatian village known for the Grand Cru Engelberg and its limestone-rich soils. People have made wine in this village for 2000 years. 

Bechtold works organically and is even certified biodynamic. This may seem commonplace to readers of this newsletter – where we tend to feature lots of producers who work in a very natural manner – but Bechtold is actually the only organic producer in his village! The wine world still has a long way to go.

His Cremant is pure delight. It’s a blend of Chardonnay and local grape Pinot Auxerrois, together with a splash of Pinot Noir. It’s light and lively, and quite dry (it’s an Extra Brut) with succulent orchard fruits and a clear minerality that experienced tasters will associate with limestone.

 

This is a great wine to make your alt-Champagne this summer. At minimum you should have a bottle on hand and in your fridge for whenever the occasion calls for a glass of bubbles (like, say, you’re in the kitchen chopping vegetables), and you don’t feel like opening up a $50 bottle: