On Champagne

Champagne is never a simple glass of fizz... As soon as the cork flies, the first sip reveals a wine of fascinating complexity. For even the most modest non-vintage cuvée, a bevy of blending decisions, multi layers of history, and the incalculable climate of this northern corner of France all come into play.

In On Champagne, the thoughts, opinions, and conclusions of the world's finest champagne writers gather to reveal this wine's action-packed trajectory from the myth of its accidental discovery — not in France, we find, but in the cider cellars of England — to the development of a high-tech champagne fit for space travel. It's a journey that starts and ends with capturing that sparkle in a bottle and along the way beguiles us with the nuances of its chalky terrain, the determination of rebels from Ambonnay to Avize, and the mystery of a champagne cellar under the sea.

We meet the pioneers who created the great champagnes of the past and the personalities who are 'greening' this landscape, nurturing it through climate change to shape the exquisite champagnes of the future.

Author: Susan Keevil started her life in wine as a 'cellar rat' cooling Chardonnays in Australia's Hunter Valley, none of which prepared her for the world of book publishing back in the UK where she honed her wine knowledge working with Hugh Johnson on six editions of his international best-seller, the Pocket Wine Book. Susan then landed her dream job as editor of Decanter magazine (the path to many worldwide wine adventures) and later became author of the Which? Guide to Wine as well as a regular magazine columnist and contributor. The launch of the Académie du Vin Library in 2019 saw a return to specialist wine books for which Susan is a writer and editor-in-chief.

Selling Points:

• A multi-layered look at this essential wine, beautifully designed to bring the region to life on the page
• Contributions from top champagne writers: Tom Stevenson, Essi Avelan MW, Serena Sutcliffe MW, Peter Liem, Tyson Stelzer and Robert Walters, and champagne's 'modern era' is welcomed in by Evelyn Waugh
• The fascinating history and Champagne's place in the world today, and its aspirations for the future
• Full of stories about the innovators and characters
• Next in the series after On California, one of 2022's wine books of the year in Sunday Telegraph, Washington Post and New York Times

113 colour, 13 b/w illustrations