Blanquette de Limoux Méthode Ancestrale AOC, now shortened to Limoux Méthode Ancestrale AOC, was granted its appellation in 1938. It is a sparkling wine made from 100% Mauzac grown in this grape’s traditional stamping ground, the 41 townships comprising the Limoux AOC region from an area of southern France in the Pyrenean foothills, just south of Carcassonne, a hilltop town in southern France’s Languedoc area.The grapes are picked later than for Blanquette de Limoux AOC and Crémant di Limoux AOC, the aim being to create a wine with both a natural sparkle and some residual sweetness, plus an alcohol level at bottling of around 7%. The juice is allowed to ferment until the alcohol content in the wine reaches 5 to 6°. The wine is then bottled, part-fermented, in spring following the harvest (under a waning moon–see celestial cycles). The wine continues to ferment in bottle, and its alcohol content rises to 6 or 7%. The wine is not disgorged, meaning any yeast deposit remains in the wine until it is opened for consumption. The wine is thus fizzy, very slightly sweet, and even slightly cloudy.

Related wines: Blanquette de Limoux AOC. | Crèmant de Limoux. | Limoux AOC.