VINE and BUBBLE Podcast

Charles Heidsieck’s acclaimed Blanc des Millénaires has earned cult status amongst those lucky enough to have tried it. It’s mineral and pure, playing more to the soil than sunshine, but finding its balance here too. Only chardonnay taken from five grand crus in the Côte des Blancs is used in this effortlessly delicious and smoothly textured champagne of euphoric wonder. Long lees ageing in Charle...

Today we are going to delve into the mysterious world of reductive champagne winemaking. If you’re a champagne lover – or any wine lover – no doubt you’ve heard this discussed in a way that is oversimplified, or maybe misleading. But it is a hugely complex and sometimes confusing topic. The best examples of reductive winemaking, produce wines of freshness and fruit character that are pure and laye...

Today we’re going to look at typicity. Typicity can be seen as what is ‘typical’ for a wine’s origins  - geography, terroir, varietal type, even viticulture and winemaking. But what does it mean when applied to champagne?  I cannot think of anyone more qualified to talk about this concept of typicity than my guest today, Marcell Kustos PhD, who has built an impressive career as a fine wine and hos...

I first met Stephen Leroux in 2018 during a visit to Charles Heidsieck in Reims. He greeted me with a warm smile and a friendly handshake, before getting down to tasting business. Unusually we started with Charles’ Rosé Reserve. He told me, “we like to start with a non-vintage rosé as the amount of reserve wine is twice less – at 20% with just five to six years’ of age. In our Brut Reserve, it’s t...

Tom Hewson is a writer and self-confessed ‘bubblehead’ specialising in a subject he is most passionate about – champagne. Tom joined Decanter’s team of expert writers earlier in 2023, where he provides incredibly detailed coverage on champagne and other sparkling wines, as well as special reports for Tim Atkin MW and as a judge for the 2023  Decanter  World Wine Awards. His love of words and wine...

Peter Liem is one of Champagne’s most recognised and celebrated ambassadors. Known for his almost surgical approach to dissecting and interpreting Champagne’s unique terroir, he has been one of the region’s greatest pioneers in bringing our awareness back to Champagne’s sense of place. As a young wine professional in the 1990s, he got his first thirst for champagne with a bottle of 1979 Salon. Tha...

Today it’s my great pleasure to introduce one of Australia’s leading and most respected wine professionals. Annette Lacey is Group Beverage Manager for Solotel, overseeing a large and diverse range of hospitality venues in Sydney, which includes Matt Moran’s multi award-winning restaurants. She completed the rigorous Master of Wine program in 2020 and is a certified WSET educator focusing on devel...

There are few people in Australia’s hospitality scene who command the level of respect, amongst peers, that our next guest does. Amanda Yallop is the group wine director at FINK, overseeing an extensive and demanding program of leading restaurants and bars: Quay, Bennelong, OTTO Sydney, OTTO Brisbane, Firedoor (Surry Hills), Gildas and Beach Byron Bay. In 2013, Amanda became a Scholar of Len Evans...

Since 1829 Champagne Bollinger has been making great wines with a powerful and aromatically rich fruit profile. The Maison has forged a clear identity with its rich pinot noir driven style earning a legion of fans from James Bond to the British Royal Family. While many Maisons chose long ago to undertake stainless steel vinification, the Maison decided overwhelmingly to use oak. This combined with...

Sara Underdown, publisher and presenter of VINE & BUBBLE, takes you on a journey to discover the real story of champagne - the people, the region, the history and - of course - the wine. We travel to Champagne and all over Australia, talking with the Cellar Masters, industry representatives and everyone in between to connect wine lovers with the story behind the finest bubbles of all. Make sur...

Today I am in Champagne chatting with Essi Avellan about her remarkable personal and professional journey with champagne. Essi is Finland’s first Master of Wine, a renowned champagne and sparkling wine specialist, author of several wine books and has revised and extended the 3rd and 4th edition of Tom Stevenson’s award-winning Christie’s World Encyclopaedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine. But not...

Today, I am in Champagne as part of a two-day special event with a Maison we’re probably all familiar with, Piper-Heidsieck. We’re going to meet the man behind Piper’s winemaking and viticultural team, and creator of a brand new champagne that goes deep into the DNA of Piper-Heidsieck’s black-fruit driven vibrant and fresh style - the new Essentiel Blanc de Noirs Cuvée. His name is Émilien Boutill...