Philippe Brisebarre Vouvray Brut

Vigneron Philippe Brisebarre started working with his father at the age of 16. The cellar is above the town of Vouvray and all but 7 of the domaine's 25 hectares lie just adjacent. His cellar, like many others in the region, is a stone cave cut straight into a cliff of tuffeau, the soft yellow sandstone famous in the Loire Valley. The cave dates back to the 1500s, when it was originally a quarry then becoming a storage facility for ice, before the days of electricity.  storing ice for refrigeration More recently it has been  the cellar for the Brisebarre family domaine for several generations, from which he offers a wonderful array of older vintages in immaculate condition.

The distinctive local yellow tuffeau limestone and moderate climate provides the perfect environment for growing Chenin Blanc. Philippe works on a lutte raisonée basis in the vineyards, making treatments only when absolutely necessary. He prefers to harvest by machine, as this gives him the opportunity to pick his grapes rapidly at the optimum moment of ripeness without any loss of quality.

The grapes are gently pressed pneumatically and the must cold settled few hours before the fermentation occurs in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks. His sparkling wine is made in the traditional method with the secondary fermentation occurring in bottle followed by 3 years ageing on lees before disgorgment. Unusually, all the sparkling wines produced at Brisebarre are riddled by hand in the traditional pupitres.

Grape: 100% Chenin

Tasting Note: A fine mousse, honeyed and complex with notes of brioche and apple, a lovely mouthfilling texture and elegant dry finish. A top-quality sparkler at a friendly price.

Food Match: great celebratory alternative to Champagne, and a match to desserts  such as cheesecake.

Farming Practices: Vegan - Contains Sulfites

Closure: Natural Cork