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Champagne: greater than the sum of its parts
Maison Pol Roger in Epernay Champagne is a wonderfully complex wine. Firstly, the champagne-maker has the option of using a blend of three different grape varietals (two of which are black grapes) -...
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Wines of Iberia
Spanish vineyard in Galicia. If you’ve read my previous posts on deciphering wine labels from France and Italy, you’ll have noticed a trend in the way wines from these two nations are classified. They...
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Champagne in a nutshell
My friend and colleague, Neel Burton, has posted excellent summaries of the history of Champagne, the geographical organisation of the region and the way in which champagne is made to his Outre Monde...
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Traditional Method Sparkling Wines of Europe
Lake Iseo - home of Franciacorta DOCG, Italy's answer to Champagne. The “traditional method” of making sparkling wine, so famously popularised through Champagne, has found emulation in many other...
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New World Traditional Method Sparkling Wines
This post follows my summary of European non-champagne traditional method sparkling wines. Traditional method sparkling wines are also made in many New World wine-producing countries. Much of the...
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Wine bottle shapes
Alsatian ‘flute’ bottle. Have you every wondered why a standard wine bottle is 750mL? Or why wine bottles are the shape they are? My curiosity was recently piqued by David Ling at Hugel in Alsace when...
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A brief history of champagne
by Neel Burton and James Flewellen Champagne served in the now-traditional flutes. (Photo credit: chrischapman) Early sparkling wines were produced by the méthode ancestrale, with the carbon dioxide...
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Champagne: The lie of the land
by Neel Burton and James Flewellen Last week’s post gave a historical overview of champagne. In this article we cover the geographical nature of the Champagne region including grape varieties grown....
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Champagne: Method of Production
by Neel Burton and James Flewellen Following previous posts on the history of champagne and the geography of the Champagne region, in this article we cover the method of champagne production....
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Essence of the Rheingau
Regular readers of this blog will know that with my focus on blind tasting, I like to get to the bottom of ‘what makes a wine a wine’ and how a particular region is expressed in the wines that come...
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