Blanquette de Limoux is a sparkling wine from the Languedoc region. It is said to be the oldest sparkling wine in the world with evidence of it being produced as long ago as 1531. (Production of non-sparkling wines dates back to Roman occupation of the area.) It's name - blanquette - refers to the whitish layer that appears on the plant.
Now, there is regular Blanquette de Limoux and Blanquette de Limoux Méthode Ancestrale, which is what we drank.
Blanquette de Limoux can be produced using at least 90% Mauzac grapes with the remainder of the wine made up of Chardonnay and/or Chenin grapes. The wine is fermented using the traditional (or, shh, champenoise) method and has an alcohol level you'd expect to see from a bottle of wine.
The ancestral method variety must use Mauzac grapes exclusively. The fermentation is entirely naturally occurring. The wine is bottled while still fermenting - yeasts and sugars are still present - and the wine does not get clarified. Bottling traditionally happens on the full moon in march. Alcohol content is below 7%.
Legend - which is retold either as fact or with the disclaimer that it is almost certainly not true - says that it is with this wine that Dom Pérignon learned the technique of producing sparkling wine and that he took what he learned with him to the Champagne region where he helped them transform and develop their rather boring and forgettable wines into the legendary product that so many know and love today.
~The details~
Name: Aimery Méthode Ancestrale
Year: Unlisted
Region: Limoux/Languedoc
Appellation: Appellation Limoux Contrôlée
Grape/Cépage: Mauzac
Alcohol: 6%
Serving Temp: 7C
Serving ideas: Drink on its own or with desserts
What we did: Drank it solo to celebrate finally having champagne flutes!
Ohh, this is like the world's oldest, naturally flavoured, naturally sweetened alcopop! Deceptive, it tasted like fizzy grape and apple juice but with a bit more character. Barely tasted alcoholic. Very fun. Fruity. Fizzy. And very nice to have an evening to not think about pairings! (I didn't notice any sediment in the bottle, though.)
Links
French wiki for Blanquette de Limoux
An article about Dom Pérignon
Good information about Blanquette and its variants
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