Clairette de Die Méthode Dioise Ancestrale AOC (formerly Clairette de Die AOC Tradition) is the slightly sparkling variant of Clairette de Die from the Northern Rhône. It is the most widely known and the oldest of all the AOCs in the Diois area in France’s deep southern Rhône, becoming an AOC in 1942. It is a demi-sec sparkling wine (white or rosé) made–despite the name–only partially (if at all) from Clairette (0-25% is permitted) and mainly from Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains (75-100%) from the same production zone as for Clairette de Die AOC and made using the ‘méthode rurale’ or méthode dioise’. Hence it is called Clairette de Die Méthode Dioise Ancestrale.

Clairette de Die AOC Méthode dioise ancestrale or the Ancestral Die Method denotes a wine made made from a single fermentation which starts in tank but finishes in the sealed bottle the wine is sold in, leaving a sweet, low alcohol, fizzy wine, perhaps with a yeast deposit at the bottom of the bottle (the deposit can be removed pre-bottling by chilling the wine in tank and filtering it under pressure at bottling).

After pressing, the grape juice or must is chilled for 48 hours. It then is allowed to ferment very slowly at 5ºC, in a vat, in a cold room (Achard-Vincent). It is bottled with around 5% alcohol and 90g/l residual sugar and the fermentation continues until it ceases naturally when the yeast is impeded by the carbon dioxide gas produced by fermentation (usually after Christmas). This leaves a bottled wine containing roughly 7% alcohol, 65g/l residual sugar and sparkle. The wine has been in intimate contact with the yeast. After six months to a year of maturation, the wine is disgorged using the transfer method. While in tank it is chilled to minus 4ºC to precipitate unstable tartrates. After filtration it is rebottled into new bottles under pressure with 7.5% alcohol and a sweetness level corresponding to demi-sec. There is no addition of a liqueur de tirage at bottling because no secondary in-bottle fermentation is desired.

Wine style: Heady scent of exotic raisins, lovely Muscat finish. Ideal served at 6-8ºC. Good to drink mid-morning, as an aperitif or dessert wine, or as a wedding toast

Vineyard area & wine production: 2002 66,771hl (Guide Hachette des Vins 2004, p.1063). | 2005 86,400hl.

Wineries

Certified Biodynamic: Domaine Achard Vincent.