Blanquette de Limoux

Limoux is the undisputed fizz capital of the Languedoc. We are proud to continue a tradition which goes back hundreds of years, long before Champagne was even invented.

This is the first sparkling wine in the world, invented and enjoyed by the Benedictine monks in Limoux around 1500, more than a century before Champagne’s Dom Pérignon started “drinking the stars”.

Our Blanquette is as crisp and clean as the mountains on our horizon. It is made from the old historic grape variety of the region, Mauzac, and spends at least one year on the lees after its second fermentation in the bottle.

Grape variety: Mauzac – Chardonnay – Chenin Blanc

The calligraphy on the label is borrowed from an early 16th century manuscript housed in the archives of  Carcassonne, which shows that Blanquette was twice the price of a non-sparkling wine at that time. This is the earliest written reference to any sparkling wine in the world.

Whether by happy accident, or divine intervention, the world’s first sparkling brut was discovered by the Benedictine monks in Limoux around 1531, in the vicinity of this vineyard.

Blanquette is one of the first appellations in France, and the oldest in Languedoc-Roussillon. It has the lowest permitted maximum yield of any sparkling wine in France.

http://www.rives-blanques.com/