Category: Champagne and Sparkling Wine

Champagne – better late-disgorged?

R.D., L.D. or D.T. – more and more Champagne bottles seem to be bearing these enigmatic acronyms, but what do they mean? We asked Champagne Specialist Edwin Dublin to explain what exactly late disgorgement is and why the trend has seized the industry. R.D., récemment dégorgé and dégorgement tardif all refer to that niche Champagne […]

Divide and rule

As Champagne alternatives rise in popularity, with English sparkling wine trickling into the mainstream, Cava continues to battle its low-quality image. Here Simon Field MW – our Buyer for both Spain and Champagne – formally introduces the wines of two quality-focused Cava houses producing superb wines. With apologies for the tired formula, it may be […]

Our new English Sparkling Wine

As we release the maiden vintage of our own-label English Sparkling Wine, Charlie Holland – winemaker at Gusbourne – follows its four-year journey to fruition. The story of this wine really starts with the 2011 vintage in Kent. The spring of that year was unusually hot and resulted in an early flowering. The heat didn’t […]

The future of Prestige Cuvées

Ahead of Champagne Taittinger’s release of their 2006 Comtes de Champagne, Gareth Birchley – Fine Wine Buyer for Asia – looks into the future of the Champagne market’s most prized bottles, the Prestige Cuvées. The release of the very first Prestige Cuvées from the much-lauded 2002 vintage proved a perfect storm for the boom of […]