• [WATCH] Taste Champagne Soutiran with Carl Sherman

    Champagne Soutiran

    Get a sip of this delicious champagne with Carl Sherman as he explains why this champagne could be the perfect pairing for lobster.

    Soutiran was certainly a stand out wine at this years CIVC annual tasting. 

  • [Watch] Tasting Pol Roger 2006 with Richard Bampfield MW

    Richard Bampfield MW

    Watch Master of Wine, Richard Bampfield explain why he is so impressed by Pol Roger's vintage 2006 champagne and why this wine is one that the connoisseur may want to lie down for a few years!

     

  • An American In Paris; Tanisha Townsend (@GirlMeetsGlass) discusses podcasts, Paris wine bars, & what she's drinking at the moment

    Girl Meets Glass Podcast Paris Bars

    Tanisha Townsend decided to move to Paris 4 years ago after regularly passing through the city en route to the world’s most famous vineyards. In fact, it was about 2 years ago at the Printemps de Champagne Bouzy Rouge tasting in Reims that I saw (who we shall now refer to as) GirlMeetsGlass chirpily speaking to her web followers on Snapchat.

  • Cellar Tasting - Champagne TristanH & Carl Sherman

    Champagne Tristran H - Cerseuix - Marne Valley

    "Grower" champagnes are the smaller houses where high quality meets finite supply. It was a glorious drive from Reims to the village of Cerseuil, in the Marne Valley, not far from Epernay.

    We joined Carl Sherman, Champagne specialist from Reims on this visit...

  • Champagne AR Lenoble: Anne Malassagne interview as family business passes 100yrs

    Champagne AR Lenoble

    When Armand-Raphaël Graser started producing Champagne under his new brand AR Lenoble 101 years ago (Lenoble being a tribute to the noble wines of Champagne), there would have been a sense of relief as the 1918 influenza pandemic was just receding into the rearview.

    Who would have conceived back then that the centenary year would be mired by a similar crisis? 

     

  • Champagne Autréau - Meet Laurent Autréau

    Champagne Autréau

    Champagne Autréau were another stand out bubbly wine at the CIVC tasting this year. I was lucky enough to capture this quick tasting note with the winemaker and namesake, Laurent Autréau.

  • Champagne Louis Roederer’s Jean Baptiste Lécaillon stares down the barrel of climate change with caution

    Louis Roederer Cristal 2008 Blanc de blancs 2010

    At the Scala Wine tasting at 67 Pall Mall last week, Louis Roederer’s esteemed chef de cave, Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, hosted a fascinating tasting in order to demonstrate how the impacts of climate change are transferring from the vineyard to the glass.

  • Champagne Video Tasting Feature:

    CIVC Tasting London 2016

    Watch our filmed tasting notes from the annual CIVC wine tasting in Westminster, London. Distinguished tasters and producers talk openly and candidly about what's in the glass and why you should try it!

  • Climate Change Creeps Into Champagne Reserve Wines

    Climate change in Champagne | Mains du Terroirs

    The Champagne collective group of growers, Le Mains du Terroirs du Champagne, held a tasting in April to connect with us aficionados who like to pilgrimage to Reims for the annual Printemps du Champagne tastings but who have been hampered by the pandemic. 

  • Coteaux Champenois: Red wine in Champagne?

    Bouzy Rouge - Pinot noir from champagne

    Why is everyone talking about “Bouzy Rouge” in Reims?Still wines from Coteaux Champenois are delicious and the Grand Cru village of Bouzy has been developing cult wine status for sometime. Find out more..

  • Didier Gimonnet on Climate Change & Champagne

    Champagne Pierre Gimonnet et Fils

    “We have lost 1 point in acidity and gained 1 point in alcohol... If the climate keeps changing a lot… probably we are going to produce great Burgundy in 100 years!”

  • Fontanasanta, Manzoni Bianco, Academy Club, Soho

    Fontanasanta, Manzoni Bianco
    When London’s only “art monger” invited me to lunch at the Academy Club, I could have been forgiven for expecting to be handed a painted mackerel. Instead, I am pleased to report, the experience was a memorable afternoon balancing gastronomy and a good old fashioned gossip.
  • Interview: Clovis Taittinger... A man on a mission!

     

  • Judgement of London dispels "Numpty" myth but...

    Steven Spurrier at Judgement of London 67 Pall Mall

    In the basement level St James’s Room at 67 Pall Mall, London, the glasses were well and truly out for the tasting that aimed to test the assertion of celebrity chef, Marco Pierre White, that only a “total numpty” would buy English wine.

  • Organic / Biodynamic Champagne Extravaganza in Reims

    Organic champagne tasting

    Searching for reasons to zoom across to Reims in the heart of Champagne is never a difficult business.

    In this instance the reason came from resident champagne specialist and national #Winelover ambassador to the region, Carl Sherman and involved tasting very fine organic & biodynamically produced bubbly.

  • Part 2 - Tasting Champagne Tristan H, Iseult

    Champagne Tristran H - Zero dosage - Iseult

    “Truly delicious!” Venture once more into the cool Autumnal cellars with Carl Sherman & taste the crème de la crème of Champagne Tristan H, the “Iseult”.

    This champagne goes beyond the canopé selection, prefering the company big bold cuisine.. enjoy!

  • Police seize 9200 bottles of fake as Champagne

    3 glasses fizz850

    Reuters: Police have seized hundreds of thousands of euros worth of fake champagne in a workshop near Padua, northern Italy, with counterfeiters looking to pass off sparkling wine as Moet & Chandon.

  • Steven Spurrier announces the Judgement of London: English Sparkling Wine v’s Champagne

    Steven Spurrie announces the Judgement of London

    It seems that English sparkling wine producers don’t appreciate their customers being referred to as “numpty’s”. Responding to Marco Pierre White’s barbed comments, a tasting has been organised called the Judgement of London (#JoL) at 67 Pall Mall, London’s wine focussed private members club.

    The tasting will be in the spirit of the famous ‘Judgement of Paris’, also presided over by Steven Spurrier in 1976, adding a layer of historical context to the proceedings. He himself will compére the London event which is sure to raise eyebrows, as Spurrier himself is a producer of English Sparkling Wine at Bride Valley Vineyard in Dorset. 

  • Vitalie Taittinger talks old vintages & English Terroir

    Vitalie Taittinger Interview

    We caught up with Vitalie Taittinger at BAFTA in London to discuss the joys of drinking old vintages of Taittinger's famed Comtes De Champagne, as well as her excitement for English terroir and a quick insight into the 2016 harvest in Champagne.

  • Vitalie Taittinger: The secret pleasures of Taittinger rosé!

    Vitalie Taittinger

    Meet the marketing director and namesake of one of the world's most famous Champagne houses: Vitalie Taittinger.


    Between sips, Vitalie shares her best secrets for enjoying Taittinger rosé.

  • Why is Champagne expensive?

    Why is Champagne expensive?

    As the blood levels picked up in my alcohol stream and I gradually sobered up from the Christmas-themed liver-buster one question came to me (about five minutes after opening up my credit card statement) why is Champagne so expensive?I don’t want to get involved with differing perceptions of what is or isn’t expensive, but I’ll bet that when most people shell out £15 or more on a bottle of wine that they’re buying a bottle of bubbly. So why is it that a cheap bottle of claret will cost you £5.50; a cheap bottle of burgundy £7.00 and a cheap bottle of champagne will set you back £15.00 or more?

Follow us on social media:

Secret Sommelier on TwitterSecret Sommelier on Instagramfacebook 001linkedin 001youtube 001

Climate change podcast

Last week a picture was posted on Twitter of vines in Shabo, a large estate that lies to the west of Odesa on southern Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline. The image seemed benign at face value but the reality, of course, is that the city of Odesa has been bracing itself for attack by Russian forces. 

 

As COVID-19 conspires with the grimmest of winds and rain to force a societal retreat behind our own front doors, the word ennui springs to mind. The muddle of displeasure is pierced when Natalia hands me a large bulbous glass of a liquid I do not recognise.

 

 

Britain’s lamentable exit

On the eve of Britain’s official departure from the EU, my partner and I decided to explore a small town on the Italian Riviera where thewintry cold doesn’t feel so much like cold war bite.

I had warned my significant other that I would be having an inverse departure party, a release of the sanity valve if you like!

 

Sitting inside the ancient castle walls inside the town of Soave, a short drive from Verona in northern Italy, the unique slightly almond aroma of the indigenous grape, Garganega, rises gently from my glass. The castle sprawls up the side of an extinct volcano that gives the region its variant soil structures that mark out the better quality of Soave wines.

 

Tanisha Townsend decided to move to Paris 4 years ago after regularly passing through the city en route to the world’s most famous vineyards. In fact, it was about 2 years ago at the Printemps de Champagne Bouzy Rouge tasting in Reims that I saw (who we shall now refer to as) GirlMeetsGlass chirpily speaking to her web followers on Snapchat.

 

The cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, the final resting place of Saint James, rises out of the landscape, infested with antiquity. The rambling steep streets give way to shafts of dramatic light, emblazoned chapels, and tightly packed tapas bars, dusty, as old novels pressed together in antiquarian bookshops.

 

We use cookies to improve our website and your experience when using it. Cookies used for the essential operation of this site have already been set. To find out more about the cookies we use and how to delete them, see our privacy policy.

  I accept cookies from this site.
EU Cookie Directive plugin by www.channeldigital.co.uk