Get to know: Champagne

We offer a variety of champagne guaranteed to get your taste buds tingling and your head bubbling. From expensive champagne to good value champagne, we have an assortment of fizz for everyone. We’re sure that for every fizz lover out there, our selection is the perfect place for you to buy champagne. Take a look our range of lovely bubblies to find exactly what you desire.

Learn more about Champagne with our quick guide below:

This area needs no introduction I'm sure. Champagne continues to be the choice to mark a celebration all over the world and only wine from this region is allowed to bear the name on its label. There are different types of producers operating here. The Maisons are the big Champagne houses who source their grapes from all over Champagne. There are co-operatives who work in specific villages with multiple growers, and there are Vignerons who are known as grower producers and are usually a single family operating in one place.

Wines are made from two red grapes (Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) and one white (Chardonnay) and are made using the traditional method of refermenting the wine in the bottle and ageing it. The producer then removes the spent yeast in process called disgorgement and rebottles it with a little dose of sweet concentrated grape must (essentially grape juice know as dosage) ready for release.

Non Vintage Champagne is aged for a minimum of 15 months, while vintage wines are aged for a minimum of 3 years.

Key Grape Varieties:

Pinot Noir - this red grape is used without any skin contact in Champagne so the juice is clear. Champagne made with only red grapes is called Blanc de Noir and often has subtle red fruit and lots of depth of flavour

Chardonnay - Champagne made with only Chardonnay is called Blanc de Blanc and often has more lemon and apple fruit and richness.

Pinot Meunier - A red grape not used much outside of Champagne, this adds fruitiness to a blend and is sometimes used as the dominant grape, but rarely on its own.