Why a champagne stopper? A reliable champagne stopper isn’t just a way of conserving leftover champagne (‘what is leftover champagne?’ I hear you ask!) but rather a key to taking your champagne journey to the next level. I never open just one bottle of champagne at my tastings, dinners and tours. Comparing multiple bottles at […]

It’s our great pleasure to invite you to welcome Stephen and Prue Henschke, custodians of their fabled eponymous estate, to a tasting at your place! It goes without saying that Henschke is Australia’s most famous and celebrated family winery, but what impressed me most about this salt-of-the-earth Barossa family when I spent harvest filming with […]

It’s our great pleasure to invite you to welcome back Charles Heidsieck’s Cyril Brun to launch his new vintage cuvées at your place! Our inaugural champagne webinar with Cyril introducing his three non-vintage cuvées in April is fondly remembered as one of our favourite webinars of the year. Now he’s back to introduce his new […]

It’s our great pleasure to invite you to welcome Didier Mariotti, the insightful and innovative chef de cave of Veuve Clicquot to a tasting at your place! For an operation of such monumental scale, the refinement and consistency of Veuve Clicquot’s characterful, full-bodied, pinot-focused wines is unrivalled in all of Champagne. Fanatical about quality, Didier […]

I first met Mike and Judy Press in their kitchen overlooking their young vineyard near Lobethal, high in the Adelaide Hills in 2006. They didn’t have a cellar door back then. Still don’t. Didn’t even have a label.  I’d heard the buzz on the grapevine that an unknown cleanskin had just won three trophies and seven gold medals in the […]

Dear friends, I have a big announcement to share with you! Today I commence a new role as Chief Editor of the Halliday Australian Wine Companion. For all of us who have grown to deeply love Australian wine and its resilient people and remarkable places, chances are James Halliday and his Australian Wine Companion have […]

Announcing my Champagne Masterclasses 2020: The Magnum Masterclass and The Stars of 2020 Masterclass! 1. The Magnum Masterclass You’re invited to the champagne magnum masterclass of the year! Magnums are the finest expression of champagne, and brut non-vintage is the most important cuvée to declare the signature of each house style. Join us as we […]

My Australian Sparkling Report 2020 features in-depth reviews of the top 240 Australian sparklings of the year at every price and style. 2020 will go down in history for many reasons in Australian wine, not least drought, bushfires and Covid – and the year of the finest sparkling cuvées ever unleashed in this country! The […]

It’s our great pleasure to invite you to welcome Champagne Bollinger International Sales Director Guy de Rivoire to a tasting at your place! Bollinger stands alongside Krug as the greatest champagne house of all. I’ve singled both out as the only houses to uphold my highest rating of 10/10 in all six revisions of The […]

It’s our great pleasure to invite you to welcome Hervé Dantan, the insightful and progressive chef de cave of Lanson to a tasting at your place! With a proactive intuition for innovation and experimentation in the vineyards and the winery, Hervé is ushering in an exciting new era in the reinvention in the 260 year […]