On Champagne – A Tapestry of Tales to Celebrate the Greatest Sparkling Wine of All
Compiled by Susan Keevil
“In On Champagne the thoughts, opinions and conclusions of the world’s finest champagne writers gather to reveal this wine’s action-packed trajectory from the myth of its accidental discovery – not in France, we find, but in the cider cellars of England – to the development of a high-tech champagne fit for space travel.
It’s a journey that starts and ends with capturing that sparkle in a bottle and along the way beguiles us with the nuances of its chalky terrain, the determination of rebels from Ambonnay to Avize, and the mystery of a champagne cellar under the sea. We meet the pioneers who created the great champagnes of the past and the personalities who are ‘greening’ this landscape, nurturing it through climate change to shape the exquisite champagnes of the future.
– Get set, go! The revolutionary growers who stood up to the grandes marques and won!
– A Menace to Society… the hazards of serving this most explosive of drinks
– With or without bubbles? Champagne physicist Gérard Liger-Belair explains how bubbles make this wine better
– Flutes or Coupes? Magnums or Jeroboams? The perfect glass and the best bottle size revealed
– Champagne and the future: which vintages and styles will we drink next?
– Homage to the Widow: we meet the women (past and present) who transform champagne
– Includes: Moët & Chandon, Krug, Bollinger’s ‘Vieilles Vignes Françaises’, Pol Roger, Dom Pérignon, Domaine Ruinart, Roederer, Veuve Clicquot and more…
– Contributions from top champagne writers: Tom Stevenson, Essi Avellan MW, Hugh Johnson, Serena Sutcliffe MW, Peter Liem, Tyson Stelzer and Robert Walters – with the ‘modern era’ welcomed in by Evelyn Waugh
ABOUT THE ACADEMIE DU VIN LIBRARY
The Académie du Vin Library was founded by Steven Spurrier and friends, dedicated to publishing the finest wine writing of the past, the present and the future. The story behind the name came from Steven’s days in Paris in the 1970s, when he began running wine appreciation courses for his English-speaking friends.
Format: Hardback