Fizz! Champagne and Sparkling Wines of the World | Anthony Rose

Anthony Rose’s Fizz! brings readers up-to-date on the exciting global developments in sparkling wine today.

Fizz! explains how sparkling wines are made, whether by the ‘traditional method’, the Charmat, or tank method or the bicycle pump method (carbonation). At the same time it examines the crucial elements that go into sparkling wine and the contribution of such agents as yeast, the secondary fermentation in bottle, the blending process, the use of oak and bottle ageing.

The chapter on the vineyard, explores its significance in sparkling wine, from the legendary white chalk soils of Champagne to other terroirs and their respective soils and climates. Naturally, the world’s best-known sparkling wine, Champagne, is covered in detail.

The book profiles Rose’s selection of the most exciting Champagne and sparkling wine producers, teasing out the stories behind the wines and focusing on the people who make them. The lion’s share of the book charts the rise of the English sparkling wine industry, changes in Spanish Cava production and the popularity of Italian Prosecco (although serious sparkling wine lovers are turning their attention to fine, traditional-method Italian fizz now coming out of Franciacorta, Alta Langa and Trentino).

Germany has seen huge improvements in its Rieslings and Spätburgunders, and its sparkling wines, Sekts, are also making waves. Elsewhere, when the Champagne houses decided to create sparkling wine outposts in California, they kick-started an entirely new industry, one that has been extraordinarily successful on the domestic market for which it was intended, and, more recently beyond the US.

The discovery of cool climate regions in Australia has given fresh impetus to Australian sparkling wine; and that in turn has had a knock-on effect in New Zealand. South African sparkling wine too, known as Méthode Cap Classique, has made a quantum leap in quality over the past decade. Emerging countries like Canada, China and Japan are also making waves in sparkling wine.

“Neat, dry, accessible, factual … If I were writing the WSET exam on sparkling wine, I would get this book and thumb it numb.” – Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com

“The best and most up-to-date 388 pages on the world of sparkling wine.” – Tom Stevenson, The World of Fine Wine