2021 Dm La Remejeanne Vin de France La Bulle, Rhone Valley

Certified organic. In just its second release, Réméjeanne’s new sparkling wine is a blend of Clairette (50%), Roussanne (25%), and Grenache Blanc (25%), drawn from the domaine’s cooler, east-facing sites. The fruit for the base wines is pressed as whole bunches and ferments with natural yeasts before resting on its fine lees in concrete for six months before bottling. Following the “prise de mousse”, the wine spends a year on its cork before disgorgement. The dosage this year is 3.2 g/L.
 
Disgorged in April this year, it’s a supremely lithe and vinous sparkling wine redolent of white flowers and stone fruits, with a creamy yet impeccably fresh palate dotted with hazelnut skin and chamomile complexity. Frankly, it blew us away with its stylish and assured personality and rippling length of flavour. Not cheap, but it’s worth every cent.

For a population of fewer than 2,000 people, Sabran sure has a lot of churches—six in total. Fortunately for us, this god-fearing village has another claim to fame; it’s home to one of the southern Rhône’s most progressive growers. La Réméjeanne is situated amid the oak-forested hills and rocky vineyards of Sabran, in the Rhône’s Gard department. Before the godsend of satellite navigation, the Domaine would take some tracking down. Despite that, it has always been one of those places that are “worth a special journey”, as the Michelin Guide would put it. 

All the Réméjeanne vines are certified organic and sit at high altitudes between 200 and 280 meters. Here, the cooler climate and limestone-rich soils endow the wines with a freshness and refinement that is not typical of this AOC. Working alongside his pioneering father, Rémy Klein, the young Olivier Klein continues to drive quality at this address skywards. Klein junior seems to have inherited the best traits of both his parents—the strong will of his mother and his father’s famously open-minded approach to winemaking.