Do we ship to you?.
750ml
Bottle:
$60.08
6 bottles:
$52.01
Chapel Down’s first vineyards were planted in the 1970s; the winery now has 200 acres in the chalk soils of Kent,...
750ml
Bottle:
$41.37
12 bottles:
$40.54
A blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, with reserves from previous years, and lees-aged for 2 ½ to 3 years to give...
750ml
Bottle:
$41.51
12 bottles:
$40.67
A delightfully pale, salmon pink colour, made wholly from Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes and lees-aged for 2 to...
750ml
Bottle:
$74.94
All our wines are tasted and judged against their peers in the principal judging week of DWWA – but making the...
750ml
Bottle:
$289.94
$305.20
From an excellent vintage and on lees for over six years, this exceptional bubbly is also England's most expensive...
750ml
Bottle:
$60.79
6 bottles:
$60.00
A complex and expertly made English bubbly from one of the nation's top estates, this opens with some struck match...
750ml
Bottle:
$68.94
6 bottles:
$68.00
This sunset-hued vintage rosé demonstrates just how far England has come on the winemaking front. And what the...
750ml
Bottle:
$81.49
6 bottles:
$79.87
#54 ENTHUSIAST 100 2022. This is a vibrant and beautifully crafted blanc de blancs. Aromas of lemon, pear and green...
750ml
Bottle:
$43.70
Notions of spiky lemon zest and rounded shortbread vie for dominance on the wine's lively nose. These opposing...
750ml
Bottle:
$34.83
$39.80
Evocative redcurrant notes play on the nose. They become more intense on the palate where lively fizz lets them mix...
Pre-Arrival
Gusbourne Estate Blanc De Blancs 2014
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$77.77
Chalk, flint and stone are the first impressions on the nose. These are followed by overtones of lemon and...
Pre-Arrival
Gusbourne Estate Blanc De Blancs 2018
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$60.72
All our wines are tasted and judged against their peers in the principal judging week of DWWA – but making the...
Pre-Arrival
Gusbourne Estate Brut Reserve 2019
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$53.89
A complex and expertly made English bubbly from one of the nation's top estates, this opens with some struck match...
Pre-Arrival
Gusbourne Estate Rose Traditional Method 2018
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$61.52
This sunset-hued vintage rosé demonstrates just how far England has come on the winemaking front. And what the...
Pre-Arrival
Hambledon Vineyard Brut Premiere Cuvee NV
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$53.07
Confit lemon, orange blossom and white lily exude on the nose, nestling amongst ripe apricot, white peach and baked...
Pre-Arrival
Sugrue Sparkling Blanc De Blancs Cuvee BOZ 2015
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$73.78
“I crafted this Blanc de Blancs with long cellar-ageing in mind, and I am delighted with the results: it is...
Pre-Arrival
Wiston Estate Cuvee Brut 2015
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$43.70
Notions of spiky lemon zest and rounded shortbread vie for dominance on the wine's lively nose. These opposing...
Champagne Blend Chardonnay Rum England
The sparkling wines of Champagne have been revered by wine drinkers for hundreds of years, and even today they maintain their reputation for excellence of flavor and character, and are consistently associated with quality, decadence, and a cause for celebration. Their unique characteristics are partly due to the careful blending of a small number of selected grape varietals, most commonly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These grapes, blended in fairly equal quantities, give the wines of Champagne their wonderful flavors and aromas, with the Pinot Noir offering length and backbone, and the Chardonnay varietal giving its acidity and dry, biscuity nature. It isn't unusual to sometimes see Champagne labeled as 'blanc de blanc', meaning it is made using only Chardonnay varietal grapes, or 'blanc de noir', which is made solely with Pinot Noir.
Of all the white wine grape varietals, surely the one which has spread the furthest and is most widely appreciated is the Chardonnay. This green skinned grape is now grown all over the Old and New Worlds, from New Zealand to the Americas, from England to Chile, and is one of the first varietals people think of when considering white wine grapes. Perhaps this is because of its huge popularity which reached a peak in the 1990s, thanks to new technologies combining with traditional methods to bring the very best features out of the Chardonnay grape, and allow its unique qualities to shine through. Most fine Chardonnay wines use a process known as malolactic fermentation, wherein the malic acids in the grape juice are converted to lactic acids, allowing a creamier, buttery nature to come forward in the wine. No grape varietal is better suited to this process than Chardonnay, which manages to balance these silky, creamy notes with fresh white fruit flavors beautifully.
It is difficult to categorize rum as a single spirit, because of all the spirits found around the globe, rum is perhaps the one which varies most dramatically from place to place. Clear, white rum - a favorite for cocktail drinkers - is perhaps the most prevalent example found today, but there is a whole world of darker, spiced and molasses-rich rums to explore, thanks to the fascinating history and wide reach this drink has.
Rum came about during the colonial times, when sugar was a huge and world-changing business. The molasses left over from the sugar production industry could easily be distilled into a delicious alcoholic drink, and provided extra income for the sugar traders. Before long, it became a favorite of sailors and transatlantic merchants, and it quickly spread across the Caribbean and Latin America, where it remains highly popular today.
The production of rum is a basic and simple one - you take your molasses, add yeast and water, and then ferment and distil the mixture. However, as is often the case, the devil is in the detail. The variation in yeasts found from place to place, the maturation period, the length of the fermentation and the type of stills and barrels used provide the rainbow-colored variation that gives rum its spectrum of styles and characteristics.