From: Limoux, Languedoc, France
Blend: 90% Mauzac, 5% Chenin Blanc, and 5% Chardonnay
Taste and Critical Acclaim: Apple blossom and minty. Dry, but gentle thanks to the soft bubbles. More tingling than fizzing. Green apples, pomelo pith and peel, chicory leaf and a tiny hint of nectarine. Mauzac stripped bare. I'd love to try this with cockles! (TC) (7/2020) Jancis Robinson
Antech's Brut Nature is produced with no added dosage, which translates to a super clean and crisp glass of bubbly. It is composed of 90% Mauzac, 5% Chenin Blanc, and 5% Chardonnay. All harvesting is done by hand. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel, and the wine undergoes a 12-month elevage on the lees, à la méthode traditionelle, before being disgorged. The brut nature is the perfect way to start off any evening's festivities. Its fresh and crisp apple-pear flavors will pair beautifully with a wide range of finger foods and pre-dinner snacks. What a value, too!
Antech specializes in sparkling wines in the heart of Limoux, an ancient southern French wine region thought to have invented sparkling wine long before Champagne ever existed. Their Brut Nature Blanquette de Limoux is bone-dry, with aromas of green tree fruits and toast leading into crisp flavors of green and golden apple, grapefruit, lemon, and brioche. Hints of yeast and almond lead into a slightly bitter but oh-so-refreshing finish. 90 Points, Decanter
Pairing: This amazingly fresh, dry, and delish sparkling wine will be an instant hit for many occasions. It’s fantastic by itself or as an aperitif, but is also a versatile pairing partner for a myriad of foods. Some ideas include and are not limited to fried chicken, sushi, fried or fresh seafood (see a recipe below), vegetable tempura, pesto pasta, ricotta risotto, ham and cheese croissants, salmon and orzo, flatbreads, pizza with white sauce or olive oil-based sauces (instead of tomato), and the like.
Butter-Fried Oysters
By David Tanis
Producer info, at a glance.
Limoux is the world’s original birthplace of sparkling wine, with the first bubbles produced here in the year 1544, some 150 years before Dom Perignon began making sparkling wine in Champagne.
Only 24 wineries exist in Limoux and Antech (pronounced “An-tesh”) is by far the region’s most celebrated producer, known for the purity and elegance of the sparkling wines they produce.
The estate was originally planted to 150 acres six generations ago, and 24 acres have been added over the years. In addition to their estate grapes, for the last 90 years the family has purchased small amounts of fruit from several friends who have plots on the top of the mountain that sits north of them. These high altitude conditions contribute added freshness to the finished wines.
Both their Cremant and Blanquette bottlings are aged in bottle for over twice the legal minimum prior to release, and are markedly lower than most of their peers in terms of dosage.
Strong women have been the driving force behind Antech for the last three generations of the winery and current winemaker Francoise Antech is one of France’s more vocal and gregarious female winemakers.
