Calvet Heritage de J. M. Calvet Chateauneuf-du-Pape 750 ML

Calvet, one of the oldest French wine brands in the world, was founded in 1818 by Jean-Marie Calvet. Eldest son of Dr. Gabriel Calvet and Anne Seriziat, Jean-Marie was born in 1789 in Anse, a small village north of Lyon. From his mother, whose family owned vineyards in Tain-l'Hermitage in the Rhone Valley, Jean Marie inherited a passion for wine, founding Calvet in 1818 to commercialise the family's wines. As Bordeaux was one of their biggest markets (Bordeaux negociants had the particular practice of blending Hermitage wines with Bordeaux wines to give the latter more color and body), Jean-Marie and his son Octave built warehouses in Bordeaux, opened an office in 1849, and expanded to Burgundy in 1870, to become the largest wine company in France in the 19th and most of the 20th century.While Calvet was sold in New York as early as 1882, its focus was primarily Europe, Argentina and Asia, and so its presence in the USA had all but disappeared by the late 1990s. Sixth generation negociant and direct descendant Jean-Christophe Calvet, and his eldest son Jean-Sebastien Calvet, in partnership with Les Grands Chais de France, are re-introducing Calvet back into the USA market with the release of Calvet Brut Rose in Spring 2017.Calvet Brut Rose is a sparkling wine from the Cremant de Bordeaux appellation and made with the methode champenoise. Bordeaux has produced sparkling wines for well over 100 years, but the appellation Cremant de Bordeaux, was not made official until 1990. Production remains relatively small as only about 500 acres in the entire region of Bordeaux are devoted to producing cremants.