“Montand sources Grenache and Cinsault from various sites in France, including Gascony and the Jura, for this traditional-method sparkler that spends a modest nine months en tirage prior to disgorgement. The finished sugar is 10 g/L. The color is peachy salmon with yellow glints, and the body is animated by a coarse but quiet bead. The wine smells of wet stone and strawberries, like peach melba and spearmint. The palate fizzes in flavors of peach nectar, honeydew, and spring berries. There’s a lovely bitter-savory mid-section that adds gravitas, and it finishes with saline minerality.

Serve it as an aperitif with salty snacks – smoked salmon, charcuterie, roasted nuts, cheese straws – or with a light first course of seafood, especially shellfish. Perfect with shrimp, its sweetness and briny quality a great match. Try it also with spicy Thai and Indian curries. It’s a screaming deal at about $14.”
— Terroir Review, May 2021

“François Montand, a native of France’s Champagne region, left his home in the 1940s, during the devastation of World War II, and traveled dangerous routes to the Jura mountains, in eastern France, hard by the Swiss Alps. There he settled and planted cuttings that he had brought from Champagne. Today, the estate produces a line of sparkling wines, made, appropriately, in the Champagne or traditional method as it is called now outside Champagne. The wine under consideration today, the François Montand Brut Rose, nv, however, does not carry a Jura designation because it is produced from grapes not typical to the region — grenache and cinsault — and because some of the grapes derive from vineyards outside the Jura. No matter! This is a delightful and slightly unusual sparkling wine that would bring a little zip and allure to any occasion, whether the upcoming Valentine’s ritual or anything else. The color is pale copper-salmon, enlivened by a steady stream of glinting tiny bubbles. A fetching bouquet is dominated by notes of orange rind, red currants and raspberries, with lofty tones of jasmine and orange blossom. Interestingly, the entry is a touch bitter, like the first sip of a Negroni, while brisk acidity cuts a swath on the palate, and elements of damp limestone and flint shape the texture from midway back through the lively finish… Very Good+.”
— Bigger Than Your Head, Feb 2016