Barmes-Buecher Cremant d'Alsace Brut Zero 2023
We have 12 in stock (Inventory is live and accurate)
The Land
Crémant d'Alsace is the most-produced crémant in France, and most of it is made as an afterthought from fruit that did not make the cut for still wine. Barmès-Buecher treats it as a wine in its own right. The domaine is based in Wettolsheim, just southwest of Colmar and next to Eguisheim, at the foot of the Vosges foothills where the rain shadow makes this one of the driest corners of France. Its 18 hectares run across a genuine spread of geology: clay-limestone and marl-sandstone on the Wettolsheim hillsides, granite higher up, and sandy, silty alluvial ground out on the plains toward Turckheim and Colmar. The plain sites ripen earlier and hold acidity, which is precisely what a zero-dosage sparkling wine needs, while the clay-limestone slopes contribute the structure.
The Wine
The 2023 is 48% Pinot Gris, 36% Pinot Auxerrois and 16% Chardonnay, a Pinot Gris-led blend that is unusual for the appellation and gives the wine more flesh than the Pinot Blanc formulas most houses use. Whole bunches are picked at full maturity and pressed slowly over about ten hours. The first fermentation runs on indigenous yeasts in stainless steel and is stopped cold, then the second fermentation happens naturally in bottle. The wine spends roughly seven months in tank and eighteen months sur lattes before disgorgement. Brut Zéro is literal: no chaptalization of the must, none of the base wine, and no dosage at disgorgement, with residual sugar under 2 grams per liter. Lemon oil, white peach, hawthorn blossom and a chalky, almost bitter-almond finish. The 2023 season was four seasons in one, a bone-dry first quarter with 16.5mm of rain, the second-hottest June since 1931, then August showers and the hottest September since 1947.
The People
The Barmès and Buecher families have grown grapes in Wettolsheim since the 17th century, and the estate's name joins the two lines. It converted to biodynamics in the late 1990s and holds Biodyvin certification, granted in 2001, which puts it among the earliest converts in Alsace. Maxime Barmès now runs the vineyard work day to day alongside his sister Sophie, and the approach is parcel-specific rather than recipe-driven, with each site worked according to what it needs. The reason the Crémant can carry zero dosage at all is agricultural, not technical: fruit farmed this way arrives ripe enough that sugar is not required to make the wine taste complete.
Food Pairing
Zero dosage means this drinks bone dry, so it handles salt and fat better than most sparkling wine. Start with a tarte flambée, the Alsatian version with fromage blanc, bacon and onion, straight out of a hot oven. Oysters with a shallot mignonette work on the salinity. Fried smelt or whitebait with lemon is the bar-snack answer, where the acidity cuts the fryer oil clean. For a real meal, roast pork loin with mustard and braised cabbage pulls on the Pinot Gris weight in the blend. Keep a bottle in the fridge door and it becomes what you open while deciding what to cook.
We ship wine to most states with a $100 minimum order for shipping. We don't ship spirits nor beer.
Weather shipping advisory: Orders placed during times of extreme heat or extreme cold will be held for no charge until more favorable weather returns.
The Alsace wine region is located in northeastern France and is known for producing aromatic white wines. The region benefits from a cool climate with a combination of continental and maritime influences, allowing for the cultivation of grape varieties like Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Pinot Gris. Pinot Noir has also been making major strides in this border region.
