Organic Viticulture

What region is the second largest sparkling wine region in France?

A. The Loire Valley

B. The Rhône Valley

C. Champagne

D. Provence

More sparkling wine is made in the Loire than in any other French region except Champagne. Loire sparkling wines fall into two categories: Crémant de Loire and sparkling wines with a specific appellation–sparkling Saumur, sparkling Vouvray, sparkling Touraine, and so forth. All are made according to the traditional (Champagne) method of secondary fermentation inside each bottle, but aged far less on their yeast lees before disgorgement. French bubbles at an unfussy price!

“He planned dinners, of enchanting aromatic foods that should be carried under the nose, snuffed and then thrown to the dogs … endless dinners, in which one could alternate flavour with flavour from sunset to dawn without satiety, while one breathed great draughts of the bouquet of old brandy.

— Vile Bodies (1930) by Evelyn Waugh, as quoted by Charles Spence in Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating

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