Champagne and Sparkling
Champagne and sparkling wines have seen tremendous growth over the last couple of years and demand is beginning to outstrip supply, leading to many of the wines (especially Champagne) being put on allocation. Our range has been hand selected by Bon Coeur Founder James Goodhart, to provide exceptional quality and value at all price levels and to suit all occasions.
All Sparkling wine must go through a secondary fermentation where the CO2 (A natural by-product of fermentation) is retained and infused back into the wine creating the all-important fizz. There are 2 main ways of doing this; either in the bottle (bottle fermentation or traditional method) or in a tank (tank fermentation or Charmat method). The rich complexity in Champagne is developed through ageing the wine on its lees (dead yeast cells) inside the bottle for at least 12 months for a non-vintage (NV) and a minimum of 3 years for a vintage champagne. In reality most champagnes are cellared for much longer; 2-3 years for NV and 4-10 years for vintage Champagne. The variety of styles, aromatic complexity, elegance and poised, precise flavours make it an extremely versatile wine. Most English sparkling wines are also made using the Traditional method as used in Champagne but with less aging requirements.
