Champagne Blend
All the hallmarks of Grand Cru are here, with brioche and flowers on the nose and an elegant palate which marries notes of lemon grass, gingerbread and honeysuckle. The wine effortlessly combines structure and finesse, and reverberates with a really authoritative Grand Cru crescendo on the finish.
Half-btl
£16.75
Half-btl 12 x 37.5cl 3cs
Bottle
£28.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1,378cs
Magnum
£61.00
D. Magnum
£150.00
D. Magnum 1 x 300cl 3cs
Bottle
£19.95
Bottle
£19.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl 6cs
Bottle
£20.27
Bottle 12 x 75cl 8cs
Katherine Dart, MW, Wine Buyer
Bottle
£20.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl 8cs
Bottle
£27.50
Bottle
£28.95
Magnum
£72.50
This is a classic apéritif Champagne. Deliciously light, crisp citrus and apple orchard flavours mingle with sundry red-berried fruit. It is beautifully plumped out in the middle, courtesy of Premier Cru Pinot Noir fruit from the evocatively named village of Dizy, ending with delicate toasty notes.
Bottle
£28.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl 25cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Fruits of the 2011 harvest, with reserve sines added from 2010, this is a most impressive effort, its lees-ageing imparting gentle biscuity notes and adding weight and structure to the first impressions, which recall English orchard fruit, yellow fruits and quince.
Bottle
£29.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl 11cs
This sparkling wine has a fine mousse that enhances the toasty, almond and honey notes. The acidity is poised and provides the perfect foil to the baked apple and spice on the palate. Perfect served chilled as an apéritif, but also good with lighter starters, shellfish or poultry.
Bottle
£31.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl 37cs
Who better than Benoît Marguet, doyen of Ambonnay, to complete our UKC Grand Cru trilogy? Sourced from the finest Grand Cru villages, this is perfectly balanced and richly structured. It is an exuberant and beautifully fragrant wine, with red berries and other summer fruits dancing harmoniously on the palate.
Bottle
£36.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 92cs
A beautiful vivid pink with a bright red berry hue, it displays an array of wild strawberry aromas on the nose that lead to a generous, complex palate of buttered toast, ripe lemon and juicy hedgerow fruit.
Bottle
£36.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl 18cs
Richard Hemming MW - jancisrobinson.com, 2nd Feb 2017
Bottle
£40.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 35cs
Bottle
£45.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 52cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bollinger was established in 1829 by Jacques Bollinger and Paul Renaudin. The House has a reputation for producing muscular Champagnes with body, depth and power; these are classic, complex, Pinot-Noir dominated Champagnes with the ability to age gracefully for many years.
A blend par excellence; Special Cuvée is the purest expression of Bollinger's house style. Its biscuity nose is endowed with hints of white fruit and the rich, full-bodied palate is perfectly balanced by fresh acidity and a soft, delicate mousse. A stylish Champagne that is ideal to drink now or in the next two or three year.
Bottle
£45.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
A standard-bearer for the quality that England can achieve, this is a very assured wine, with a firm acidic spine, but also complexity and detail. Great focus and precision.
Bottle
£45.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl 13cs
Created by the eponymous widow in 1818, the Rosé is a wonderful partner to the famous Veuve Yellow Label; as always Pinot Noir is in the ascendant, making up just half of the blend. Chardonnay edges it over Pinot Meunier for the balance, lending elegance and linear authority. Wild strawberry aromas dominate here, and the palate is generous, almost savoury and vinous, yet always fresh, approachable and, as a result, incalculably delicious.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer
*Discount is already applied to the single-bottle price and no further discount will be applied at checkout.
Bottle
£48.00
Premier and Grand Cru sites only supply the grapes for this excellent rosé, which is made up of 45 percent Chardonnay and 55 percent Pinot Noir, with 18 percent of the latter added as red wine. A subtle nose of rosehip, spice and wild strawberry; on the palate the wine marries exuberant fruit with a richly velvety texture. Ruinart is famous for their Rosé; justly so it would seem.
Bottle
£55.00
Bottle
£55.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 23cs
Bottle
£61.55
Bottle 6 x 75cl 14cs
Case price (Bottle 6 x 75cl)
Bottle 6 x 75cl 12cs
Stephan Reinhardt , The Wine Advocate (winter 2018)
Bottle
£65.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 4cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle
£69.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 16cs
Case price (Magnum 3 x 150cl)
Magnum 3 x 150cl 2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Magnum 3 x 150cl 1cs
More famous for Cristal, their vintage expression is often overlooked – a great pity for it is one of the classiest Grande Marque vintages around. A superlative year, Roederer has risen to the occasion. The initial attack is of generous black-berried and wild strawberry compôte from this Pinot Noir dominated wine. There follows a glorious palate texture, in part from the rich fruit as well as subtle oak, with the gentlest of notes from bâtonnage. Fresh citrus and honeydew melon courtesy of the Chardonnay provide a long, poised finish.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle
£74.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 30cs
Davy Zyw - Wine Buyer
Magnum
£75.00
Magnum 3 x 150cl 2cs
The 2007 vintage was cool-ish (spring’s warm weather was halted by a relatively cold August, common in Atlantic-influenced vintages) which is a departure from the other vintages of this warm decade. There is a certain gravitas that engendered a reserved character when the wine was first released, but it is now opening up.
You can almost nose the coolness, with white flowers and citrus to the fore. Gentle swirling releases bolder berried fruit, that classic Bollinger Morello cherry note with kirsch liqueur adding succulence. The finish adds soft oak spice and I’m sure I detected a hint of truffle sous-bois, a foretaste of its future perhaps? And with similarities to the 1988 vintage, I predict a long and assured future ahead.
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 3cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle
£86.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 4cs
Which grapes are included in the blend, and their proportion, is one of the key factors determining the style of most Champagnes. Three grapes are used - Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier.
26% of vineyards in Champagne are planted with Chardonnay and it performs best on the Côtes des Blancs and on the chalk slopes south of Epernay. It is relatively simple to grow, although it buds early and thus is susceptible to spring frosts. It produces lighter, fresher wines than those from Burgundy and gives finesse, fruit and elegance to the final blend. It is the sole grape in Blancs de Blancs, which are some of the richest long-lived Champagnes produced.
Pinot Noir accounts for nearly 40% of the plantings in Champagne and lies at the heart of most blends - it gives Champagne its body, structure, strength and grip. It is planted across Champagne and particularly so in the southern Aube district.
The final component is Pinot Meunier and this constitutes nearly 35% of the plantings. Its durability and resistance to spring frosts make the Marne Valley, a notorious frost pocket, its natural home. It ripens well in poor years and produces a soft, fruity style of wine that is ideal for blending with the more assertive flavours of Pinot Noir. Producers allege that Pinot Meunier lacks ageing potential, but this does not deter Krug from including around 15% of it in their final blends.