There was white, there was red and, if you stopped making red wine half way through, there was rôsé. That was it. Then, about 400 years ago, in Northern France they made a wonderful discovery. In some years, as grip of winter loosened and spring began to bring life to the fields and vineyards, the wine in their cellars changed. It also came alive. It began to sparkle.

It must have seemed like magic. It must also have been frustrating since it appeared to happen by luck rather than design. It took a monk called Dom Perignon, from the Abbey at Hautvilliers, to work it all out.

As well as his religious calling he was also a scientist. He saw that in the colder winters, rather than finishing their fermentation some wines simply went to sleep. In spring they woke up again. If in the mean time, the wine had been bottled it finished fermenting in the bottle. The result was a wine that sparkled… or more likely a bottle that exploded due to the pressure!

He set about formalising the process so that the results were a little more predictable. He made sure that the wine finished its first fermentation completely and then deliberately started a second by adding sugar and yeast to bottles of still wine.

He decided on the grape varieties that were best and the combination of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier is still used today. He began to blend wines from different vineyards and different years so that he got a consistently high quality wine time after time. Finally he started to use British bottles, which were strong enough not to explode, and stopper them with cork from Spain, which made a properly airtight seal to hold in the fizz.

This combination of innovations meant that the produce from these vineyards became the most famous and sought after all over Europe. Sparkling wine and the wine we know today as Champagne was born.

Champagne
It was the first but does that mean it is the best? Well a combination of things unique to this part of Northern France means that it has natural advantages over its ‘newer’ rivals. Cavernous cellars dug millennia before by the Romans are used to quietly mature the wines in perfect stillness and at the perfect natural temperature.

This far north the grapes are on the limit of ripening each year. It means that the resulting wines are really quite tart and thin. However it is this acidity that allows them to age brilliantly and develop the elegance for which Champagne is renown. It also makes them perfect ‘food’ wines.

Finally, as guardians of a very special wine, the owners of the Champagne houses know that the rest of the world would like their crown. Only maintaining the very highest standards of quality will mean that they keep it!

Cava
Don’t be fooled by its’ everyday, great value price. Cava, like Champagne, is another sparkling wine that is made by the traditional method. A second fermentation in bottle means that every bottle of wine is created individually in the very bottle you buy! Here in the Pénedès hills inland from Barcelona in North West Spain some of the oldest winemaking families in the world create this fresh, yet complex sparkling wine.

Asti Spumante
Asti Spumante is the lusciously sweet, stylish, Italian take on sparkling wine. It gets its sparkle slightly differently in that the second fermentation happens in large tanks. The intensely sweet and fragrant character comes from the Moscato grapes making it is the perfect accompaniment to fruit desserts or rich Italian cakes such as Panettone.

New World
Like the rest of the ‘New’ world of wine, our sparkling wines from California or Australia don’t compromise on quality. They are made using traditional bottle fermentation and most of the ‘classic’ grape varieties used for Champagne, but like the winemakers themselves they are louder, tastier, less about subtlety and refinement and more about flavour and fun. If Champagne is the perfect accompaniment to caviar, fois gras and lobster, then don’t even think of having a party or a barbeque without a New World Sparkler!