The First Sip Of Summer - CHANDON Garden Spritz: A Delicious, Uplifting Spritz Experience

CHANDON Garden Spritz evokes a delightful summer spent at sunny gatherings with good friends.

Sophisticated yet authentic. Simple yet intriguing. Crafted with half the sugar of any other spritz, it has no artificial flavors and no artificial colors. It’s nothing more than naturally delicious.

CHANDON Garden Spritz takes our exceptional sparkling wine and adds a unique twist: our own bitter-orange liqueur, handcrafted with locally sourced oranges, herbs and spices. A secret artisanal recipe, ready to serve, ready to share – ideally drenched over ice with a sliver of fresh orange and a sprig of rosemary.

THE LATEST DROP FROM OUR UNEXPECTED LANDS

Our winemakers in Argentina are used to uncovering the unexpected. CHANDON Garden Spritz was inspired by the wellknown Argentine penchant for moreish bitter flavors such as yerba maté and Fernet – aromas that tantalize the palate. Add in the exceptional quality of the local Valencia oranges, and you have the perfect authentic summer serve.

It’s a refined spritz for those seeking new frontiers in their glass, handcrafted by CHANDON’s winemaking team in Mendoza, Argentina, using local handpicked grapes and oranges, enhanced with rarefied botanicals.

THE BEST INGREDIENTS FOR THE PERFECT SPRITZ

• WE TAKE

A delicious top-quality dry cuvée of the house’s sparkling wine, made with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Semillon grapes grown at an altitude of around 1,000m at our estate in Mendoza. Here, the terroir and climate naturally favor the freshness, ripeness and acidity we require. The wine is made using our slow-ferment long Charmat method to preserve this all-important true fruit expression.

• WE ADD
  

Our house-made zesty, aromatic, refreshing orange bitters. We craft it from perfectly ripe Valencia oranges, grown on a pesticidefree sustainable farm in Entre Rios, northeastern Argentina that has been cultivated by one family for three generations. Once our oranges are peeled, we oven-dry some of the rinds, using some dried and some fresh in our blend. We macerate the rinds in grape brandy, along with a selection of herbs and spices from the world’s finest terroirs. The result is a delectable bitter-orange liqueur. Once blended with our sparkling wine, it’s summer in a bottle.

• YOU ADD

Ice, a fresh orange twist, a sprig of rosemary, and friends. Then toast the moment, any way you like.

MEET THE WINEMAKER

Ana Paula Bartolucci is a winemaker at CHANDON Argentina. She is the creator of CHANDON Garden Spritz

"I was born in Mendoza, less than 60km from the CHANDON winery, so I can say that CHANDON Garden Spritz is authentically Argentinean. We knew we wanted something bitter, because this country loves bitter flavors. We drink maté every day; we drink Fernet and vermouth.

The quality of our oranges, as well as our wine, is a source of pride in Argentina. For this composition, our winemakers studied oranges as if they were grapes in order to craft the best spritz experience possible. We selected a traditional, sustainable family farm that doesn’t use any pesticides on the oranges. That was important to us, because we’re only using the peels.

We identified the very best time to harvest in order to get the specific aromas we wanted. In 2020, we bought 25 tons of oranges. We give the juice to local schools and soup kitchens.

We craft the peels in different ways – fresh, macerated or baked to give a caramel, chocolate, candied flavor. The smell while they’re cooking is incredible! The herbs and spices we use come from all over the world, and we macerate each one, and the peels, separately for a variety of durations in order to give us a huge range of options for blending.

Meanwhile we make the base wine with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Semillon grapes from the CHANDON estate. Each variety is vinified separately using our slowferment long Charmat method.

Blending the final Spritz is a delicate process. For months, we worked through so many proposals that weren’t quite right. For proposal 64, I made it stronger. I wanted enough bitterness to invite you to taste again – the tonic effect. We tasted blind – and that was it. Number 64 was the one.

CHANDON Garden Spritz is something to be enjoyed, with friends, on so many occasions. With food, even. The 187ml size has sold really well – it’s just a little treat to elevate the moment.

It’s unique, really. And that’s right for us. CHANDON is at the vanguard of sparkling wine, and we have always been innovative, so it’s right that we continue to be. We have spent four years developing this product and now we’re inspiring new consumers. I’m proud of it."

NEED TO KNOW

• ORANGES

- 2.5 tons of oranges hand-peeled per year

- 704 hours spent hand-peeling oranges

- 1400 wood cases holding 18kg of oranges each purchased

- 100km of orange peels used per year (1.8m per orange)

• BASE WINE

100% of our grapes are handharvested

- 1000m above sea level is the lowest altitude of our vineyards, 1650m the highest altitude

- 6 months’ minimum maturation for our base wines before blending with our orange bitters

- Base wine is CHANDON Brut, nominated best Argentine sparkling wine at the 2020 CSWWC competition

• RECIPE

- 64 proposals developed before reaching the perfect recipe

- 1 secret blend:

     - a mix of spices for woody and warm aromatic notes

     - herbs and plants for herbal aromatic notes

     - orange peels for bitter aromatic notes

- 4 years to reach the perfect bitter-orange liqueur recipe

- 0.5 tons of spices purchased per year

- Herbs and spices sourced from the best terroirs in the world: Argentina and Brazil for the fresh herbs; India, Madagascar and Central America for the spices

- 100% slow-macerated ingredients: from 1000 hours (6 weeks) to 4500 hours (6 months) depending on the herb or spice

- All spice and herb aromas extracted individually

- No artificial flavors and no artificial colors are used at any stage of production

• ABV

- 11.5% vol

• SUGAR CONTENT

- 60g/l allows the perfect balance between acidity and bitterness

- 50% less sugar than an ordinary spritz

• PRICE
  

Retail:

€20-25 per bottle

- Bars, Restaurants: €35-45 per bottle and €9-11 per glass

• WHERE TO FIND

- Inclusive bars, restaurants and terraces; design fairs, fashion weeks, arts and crafts gatherings and galleries

- Selected retail outlets and e-stores

• RESPONSIBLE CRAFT

- 100% of our oranges are free from residual pesticides

- 100% of our oranges are purchased from a sustainability-certified family farm

- No artificial colors

- No artificial flavors

- 100% of the juice we extract from the oranges is distributed to local schools

- 5 tons of waste (seeds, peels, pulp) are used for

compost in our vineyards

- 750g is the weight of our bottle:

     - 25% lighter than the average sparkling-wine bottle,

     - making it one of the most environmentally conscious in the category

WE ARE CURIOUS EXPLORERS

CHANDON is a community of winemakers rooted in a domain on which the sun never sets.

"It all starts with a pronounced taste for the unknown. Curiosity is the key," PHILIPPE MÉVEL, CHIEF WINEMAKER, CHANDON BRAZIL.

We are the proud scion of the champagne leader, Moët & Chandon. Since our foundation in 1959 in Argentina, we've become an independent Maison, crafting exceptional sparkling wines with a unique personality and our own terroirs around the world. In 60 years of excellence, the pioneering spirit that’s embedded in our DNA has taken us all over the globe, to California, Brazil, Australia, China and India.

We're now six connected wineries, all making outstanding wines, united by our shared personality and values. Our mission has always been to open up a world of possibilities in sparkling wine. It is as relevant today as it was six decades ago.

WE ARE A COMMUNITY

Our values are a way of life, upheld by every one of us and all our collaborative partners.

- Dan Buckle, Chief Winemaker - CHANDON Australia

- Philippe Mével, Chief Winemaker - CHANDON Brazil

- Diego Ribbert, Chief Winemaker- CHANDON Argentina

- Kaushal Khairnar, Chief Winemaker - CHANDON India

- Pauline Lhote, Chief Winemaker - CHANDON California

- Aiguo Liu, Chief Winemaker - CHANDON China

• WE ARE ROOTED
  

We know that the earth is where it all starts: it holds the key to our brand. We are profoundly linked to our terroirs and cultures and committed to expressing them in our wines.

• WE ARE INCLUSIVE
  

We are a collaborative network, a community of 16 winemakers of seven different nationalities, sharing our skills and ideas. We are diverse, outward-looking and responsive, and we attract those who are like-minded. We want to give and to mark joy; so everyone is welcome at our table.

• WE ARE ADVENTUROUS

We have always sought out the unexpected. From day one, we have been committed to discovering new and unexpected lands, people and methods to keep our sparkling wines at the top of their category. That’s how we’ve taken a traditional product and made it modern.

“The great thing about Chandon is the fact that it’s one brand with six different identities. There’s diversity, but there is also a family resemblance,” Pauline Lhote, Chief Winemaker, Chandon California.

• WE ARE INSPIRED
  

It is our inspiration that prompts us to seek out the unexpected, to look out into the world, to go beyond the familiar.

• WE ARE COURAGEOUS
  

We believe there is more risk in not taking risks than in taking them. This boldness is what it means to be a pioneer. From day one we have done what others did not dare to do: we have rewritten the rule book on premium sparkling.

• WE ARE COLLABORATIVE
  

Community is our strength. Our flair for exploration and our curiosity unite us. We travel, we harvest, we exchange. We are a network of skilled individuals who share knowledge, insights and practical help. Each of us knows we cannot do this alone.

WE SHARE OUR LANDS

We are committed to diversity in our lands and our people.

1,389 hectares Chandon is the largest sparkling-wine estate worldwide, with 1,389 hectares 100 per cent dedicated to sparkling-wine production.

Our lands are fundamental to who we are. We want our consumers to be able to taste a place in a glass. Across our six wineries in Argentina, California, Brazil, Australia, China and India, we now have 1,389 hectares under vine. This covers the majority of our grape needs.

Our trusted grower partners, whom we carefully train, supervise and support to meet our exacting quality standards, give us access to the remainder. Many of these relationships are with family-run growers and go back decades. These links are a crucial part of our collaborative ethos.

Over the last 10 years, we have focused on the goal of sustainability. We have increased our use of renewable energy and our recycling, and focused on soil health and polyculture as well as minimizing use of chemicals.

It's a work in progress. Across our lands, we are precisely analyzing our carbon footprint, using the data we gather to drive an action plan to meet enhanced sustainability criteria by 2022. We want to take responsible sparkling winemaking to the next level.

A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES

Our people are a multi-talented, multi-cultural family of individuals.

Our diverse teams handle everything from viticulture to marketing, picking to bottling. We are united in a single goal: to make outstanding sparkling wines. Our culture is supportive, open and respectful. Everyone in the CHANDON family has the benefit of centuries of inherited expertise, but each team is working in different conditions, some using different varieties and methods, harvesting at different times.

CHANDON’s innovation extends beyond terroir to technique. Because we are unrestrained winemakers, we have dedicated ourselves to honing a timehonoured craft, putting it to the test in unusual situations, and using our ingenuity to create something exceptional. Thus method follows style. For some wines, we use the traditional method; for others we use our own slow-ferment long Charmat method, whereby wines are fermented in tank and continuously stirred to incorporate creaminess from the lees. Our primary goal is to express our personality, our terroirs and the fruit that the earth gives us.

As a community, we continuously improve our knowledge through open discussion and on-site assistance. Hence, our winemakers have monthly virtual meetings where they share information, insights and inspiration. Our knowhow is our most valuable asset, and sharing is both our way of doing things and our raison d’être.

We also take our engagement with our teams and the communities we rely on very seriously. We are involved in a number of community initiatives throughout our houses, from Educate in Harvest – a teaching program for children of pickers during the Mendoza harvest – to educational mural campaigns at our newest house, CHANDON India.

WE CELEBRATE TODAY

Ours has been an epic journey. It was in the late 1950s that Robert-Jean de Vogüé, at the time President at Moët & Chandon, had the vision, courage and stamina to redefine luxury bubbles.

He was convinced that the road less travelled led to an exciting future for quality sparkling wine. So he set off on a journey to find new, unexpected lands in Argentina. What he found there, in Mendoza – a high-altitude semidesert in the Andean foothills – was the perfect terroir for pure, expressive, fruit-driven world-class fizz. He decided his hunch – to export the savoir-faire, not the bottles – was right.

And so it began: our tradition of innovation.

"Too many have closed their shutters. I have opened many windows,” Robert-Jean de Vogüé, founder of Chandon.

Today we celebrate Chandon’s arrival in Europe with our newest innovation, CHANDON Garden Spritz, the latest drop from our unexpected lands, and a fresh, elegant new livery for a brand that has been pioneering for more than 60 years.

Here’s to Chandon.

Here’s to you.