Stories

How Much Can Ruinart's Chardonnay Change?
How Much Can Ruinart's Chardonnay Change?
|Sara Underdown
Ripening Chardonnay isn't really the problem at Ruinart anymore. Knowing the exact moment it's ready – that's the puzzle keeping chef de caves, Caroline Fiot, wondering at night.  Tasting through the... Read more...
A Finer Line: Caroline Latrive’s Deutz
A Finer Line: Caroline Latrive’s Deutz
|Sara Underdown
When Caroline Latrive became chef de cave at Deutz, she wasn't looking to change the style of this historic Aÿ House. Like any new cellar master taking over from a... Read more...
Lallier Réflexion R.021: The Thinking Behind a Different Kind of Non-Vintage Champagne
Lallier Réflexion R.021: The Thinking Behind a Different Kind of Non-Vintage Champagne
|Sara Underdown
Champagne’s identity has long been built around the art of blending. Historically, its purpose was as practical as it was stylistic: to smooth out vintage variation and deliver the consistency... Read more...
Bollinger B16 Finds Balance in 2016
Bollinger B16 Finds Balance in 2016
|Sara Underdown
I remember when Bollinger released B13 back in 2021. It was a 100% pinot noir blanc de noirs from the challenging, but eventually glorious, 2013 vintage and it was at... Read more...
Champagne Takes its Place as Langtons Launches Inaugural Classification of International Wine
Champagne Takes its Place as Langtons Launches Inaugural Classification of International Wine
|Sara Underdown
Champagne has taken a significant step forward in Australia’s fine-wine collecting landscape, with 14 wines included in LANGTONS’ inaugural Classification of International Wine. The new 160-wine Classification is particularly interesting because... Read more...
Beyond Bordeaux: Can Champagne Build Its Own Culture of Collecting?
Beyond Bordeaux: Can Champagne Build Its Own Culture of Collecting?
|Sara Underdown
More than twelve months after its launch, Lanson's Private Collection has become more than a new service for collectors. It is a test of whether champagne can carve out its... Read more...
Forty Years Young: How Champagne Thiénot Is Defining Its Future
Forty Years Young: How Champagne Thiénot Is Defining Its Future
|Sara Underdown
Forty years after Alain Thiénot founded his eponymous Champagne House, the next generation is balancing the family's local legacy with fresh ideas and global partnerships with confidence that the Maison's... Read more...
The Best Wellness Destinations in Champagne: Hostellerie La Briqueterie
The Best Wellness Destinations in Champagne: Hostellerie La Briqueterie
|Sara Underdown
There is something immediately restorative about arriving at Hostellerie La Briqueterie. Perhaps it’s the sweep of four hectares of manicured gardens, or the way the property opens quietly onto the... Read more...
The Best Wellness Destinations in Champagne: Château de Sacy
The Best Wellness Destinations in Champagne: Château de Sacy
|Sara Underdown
It feels as though it has been lifted from the pages of a storybook. At the end of a long, winding road, Château de Sacy reveals itself as a romantic... Read more...
Two Rosés, One Signature: How Charles Heidsieck Achieves Texture and Precision
Two Rosés, One Signature: How Charles Heidsieck Achieves Texture and Precision
|Sara Underdown
Charles Heidsieck always manages to produce champagnes that offer a different kind of power; something quieter and more refined. They don’t announce themselves loudly; they unfold. And almost always, they... Read more...
Inside Joseph Perrier’s Renaissance
Inside Joseph Perrier’s Renaissance
|Sara Underdown
In Champagne, certain names carry an almost instinctive resonance. Perrier is one of them. For many, it evokes heritage, prestige and a sense of permanence within a region where time... Read more...
Champagne’s Eighth Grape: The Return of Chardonnay Rosé
Champagne’s Eighth Grape: The Return of Chardonnay Rosé
|Sara Underdown
For a region built on precision, precedent and some of the world’s tightest wine regulations, Champagne is not known for surprises. Yet, recently, the appellation quietly expanded its official framework... Read more...

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