Calvet Cremant de Bordeaux Brut 2012
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2019-
Wilfred
Wong
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Wilfred
Wong
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Wilfred
Wong
Calvet, one of the oldest French wine brands in the world, was founded in 1818 by Jean-Marie Calvet. He was born in 1789 in Anse, a small village north of Lyon. From his mother, whose family owned vineyards in Tain-l’Hermitage in the Rhône Valley, he inherited a passion for wine, founding Calvet in 1818 to commercialise the family’s wines. As Bordeaux was one of their biggest markets, Jean-Marie and his son Octave built warehouses in Bordeaux, opened an office in 1849, and expanded to Burgundy in 1870, to become the largest wine company in France in the 19th and most of the 20th century.
While Calvet was sold in New York as early as 1882, its focus was primarily Europe, Argentina and Asia, and as a result, its presence in the USA had all but disappeared by the late 1990s. Sixth generation négociant and direct descendant Jean-Christophe Calvet, and his eldest son Jean-Sebastien Calvet, are reintroducing the Calvet brand back into the USA market since 2017.
Calvet Brut is a sparkling wine from the Crémant de Bordeaux appellation and made with the me´thode champenoise. As a result, it follows the sample production principles as the famous Champagne region. All grapes are harvested manually, secondary fermentations (Prise de mousse) occurs in the bottle and there’s a minimum of 12 months of aging on the lees before it’s bottled. The vintage is declared every year, which emphasises the quality and the typicity of the vintage. The grapes used are Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Semillon, which are indigenous to the region.
Bordeaux has produced sparkling wines for well over 100 years, but the appellation Crémant de Bordeaux, was not made official until 1990. Production remains relatively small as represents less than 1% of the total Bordeaux production.
Today, Calvet makes a Brut Blanc and Brut Rosé Crémant de Bordeaux.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
One of the most important wine regions of the world, Bordeaux is a powerhouse producer of wines of all colors, sweetness levels, and price points. Separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a coastal pine forest, this relatively flat region has a mild maritime climate, marked by cool wet winters and warm summers. Annual weather differences create significant vintage variations, making Bordeaux an exciting French wine region to follow.
The Gironde estuary, a defining feature of Bordeaux, separates most of the region into the Left Bank and the Right Bank. Farther inland, where the Gironde splits into the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers, the bucolic, rolling hills of the area in between, called Entre-Deux-Mers, is a source of great quality, approachable reds and whites.
The Left Bank, dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, contains the Médoc, Graves, and Sauternes, as well as the region’s most famous chateaux. Merlot is important here as the perfect blending grape for Cabernet Sauvignon adding plush fruit and softening Cabernet's sometimes hefty tannins. Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec may also be used in the Left Bank Bordeaux wine blends.
Merlot is the principal Bordeaux wine variety of the Right Bank; Cabernet Franc adds structure and complexity to Merlot, creating wines that are concentrated, supple, and more imminently ready for drinking, compared with their Left Bank counterparts. Key appellations of the Right Bank include St. Emilion and Pomerol.
Dry and sweet Bordeaux white wines are produced throughout the region from Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, and sometimes Muscadelle or Sauvignon Gris. Some of the finest dry whites can be found in the Graves sub-appellation of Pessac-Léognan, while Sauternes is undisputedly the gold standard for sweet wines. Small amounts of rosé and sparkling Bordeaux wines are made in the region as well.