Clairette de Die is an appellation for sparkling white wines from the area around the town of Die, between the Rhone river and the foothills of the Alps in south-eastern France.
Muscat Blanc a Petits Grains is the dominant grape variety in Clairette de Die wines, making up a required 75% of the blend. Oddly, the Clairette variety which gives the wine its name is only required to make up the remaining 25%.
One of the few sources of sparkling wines in the Rhone wine region (Saint-Peray being the other of note), Die also stands out geographically from the rest of the Rhone valley. Situated some 30 miles (50km) east of the Rhone river, the town and its vineyards stand rather isolated in their elevated location.
The topography and soils of the area around Die are characterized by craggy outcrops of glacial rock formations and the high cliff faces of the Alpine foothills. The vineyards which produce the grapes for Cremant de Die wines are planted in soils which are the product of millennia of erosion - a combination of chalky clays and sedimentary rocks. The climate here is no less dramatic, being highly changeable due to the proximity of the Alps to the east. Die is at the northern extreme of the Mediterranean climate, and therefore enjoys periods of extended, intense sunshine and warm weather, mixed in with fast-developing mountain storms and rain showers.
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