Your tongue is covered with over 10,000 individual taste buds. These receptors enable us to detect the presence of certain compounds in our food and drink. Yet for all the adjectives we have to describe flavors, there are only 4 basic flavors the tongue can detect, with a fifth having been described in Asian cultures and only recently being accepted in the west. The four we commonly think of are sweet, sour, salt, and bitter. The fifth flavor perception has been named by the Japanese as umami, or the savory sensation, associated with protein or meats.

So if the tongue has such a limited role to play in how we perceive wine, then where does all that wonderful experience come from when we sip and enjoy a glass? The answer is in front of your nose; or rather it is your nose. The sense of smell is more important to taste than the tongue itself. So what better place to start tasting wine than with the aroma? Well, actually before you ever taste or smell the wine your eyes will see it, so let us start with a look at the wine.

Color and Clarity

The first thing you should do is hold your glass at half an arm’s length, and against a while or light colored background. Look at how the light comes through the wine. A good quality wine should be bright, with no cloudy haze or particles floating around. If it is a sparkling wine the bubbles should be fine and leave a delicate mist bursting at the surface. If the wine appears brownish, like is has been tinted, it may very well be oxidized. The color of white wine is often very telling of the flavors they contain. Lighter, pale straw colored wines are likely to taste lighter and crisp with very fresh citrus or herbal notes, whereas darker whites will have more bold oak or vanilla components. The color of red wines will be very indicative of the grapes used, ranging from pale burgundy to a purple crimson.

Aroma

Gently swirl the wine in the glass for a moment, and before you even get the glass to your nose you will start to smell it. The first aromas to get to your nose will be the highly volatile esters responsible for the fruity smells, as well as alcohol. Now bring the glass up to your nose, but don?t put your nose in the glass, after all you are going to drink from it in a moment. Give a nice gentle but lingering sniff. This will be the most complex part of the wine as there are literally hundreds of components contributing to the wines aroma. If there is any sign of spoilage, stop now before you ruin your nose and taste buds for the night. There are many words used to describe wine aroma, from fresh fruit, dried fruit, herbal, grassy, oaky, vanilla, citrus, floral, to less desirable like chemical, sulphur, or madeirised (oxidized). Wines that have been aging for a while may even develop some aromas that are earthy and almost like truffles. Don?t be too concerned with the exact description, just use other flavors you are already familiar with and can remember for future comparisons.

Tasting

Finally take a sip of wine into your mouth but do not swallow. Don?t worry, we wont? ask you to spit it out, after all the vintner made the wine to be consumed. But do hold the wine in your mouth a moment. Now you will quickly perceive acidity (sour), on the sides of your tongue, and sweet on the tip. And soon after if there are any tannins on the wine they will make themselves known as the sensation of drying, or almost ?sticking? to your tongue. Breathe out into your nose a little and you unleash the full potential of the wine. By now the wine has change dramatically as you progress from the fore palate through the mid to the end palate. Finally swallow and any bitterness will be perceived on the back of your tongue, and you can really enjoy the lingering affects.As you proceed through these steps you may be amazed at how different the perception of the wine is.

Many wines excel at a single point or two along this tasting path, but only those wines that are exceptional improve with each phase of tasting and culminate with a lingering end palate that leaves you begging for another sip. While these are just the basics, it can many years and literally hundreds of wine samples to become expertly tuned into tasting wine.

Michael Briggs is a wine fanatic and a frequent contributor to Winery-Mall where you can learn all about wine enjoyment.

I, with my husband enrolled to a wine of the month club, thanks to the couple that chose to stay with us on a weekend who extended the invitation to join the club. I think it as a wonderful gift of courtesy. Ever since joining the club, we receive two bottles of wine every month. My husband doesn?t care about wine and he asks me what to do with that much wine. I found a solution to the problem. I decided to use my membership at a club of different kind, a book club to make the most of the sample wine bottle I would receive from the wine club.

I met the members of the book club at a meeting and told them about the wine I get from the ?wine of the month? club. Till then it is not a problem finishing off the wine. We picked a book on wine making, wine testing, wine sampling and stories of people related to wine making and serving industry. We are book club members, you see. The next meeting of the book club was planned at my home. By the time the meeting materialized, I had some unique bottles of wine. We discussed the book (really!) while sampling the wine. It was a nice thing to see wine of the month club was mentioned in the book. Now tell me what should I call the meeting ? wine of the month meeting or book club meeting?

I agree it was the loudest book club meeting we ever had. Different sampling wine glasses were emptied at regular intervals. It was great fun for everyone. Was it wine of the month club that added fun and value to our book club meeting or is it the other way round? It doesn?t matter till we have something for our intellect and for our tongue as well.

The membership fee to the wine of the month club is quite reasonable and most of the book club members joined the club as a group. It is nice that the hostess always something unique for the guests, even in the form of wines. Some of the wines are great tasting while I don?t really like all of them. It doesn?t matter ? there will always be takers for the tastes that I personally dislike. It is only natural for us to note which wines perform well on our tongues and which one doesn?t. We will be purchasing the ones that raised some prolific cheers.

Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning food and drink. Learn more at Wine of the Month Club

If you love wine and are looking for a quality wooden wine rack, read on…

Mahogany wine racks are very durable. Mahogany wood is a deep brown with a medium grain making it a relatively hardwood. Mahogany wine racks are one of the basic forms of wine racks. Mahogany, because of its strength, is used to build instant cellars. Most mahogany wineracks are made so that each individual bottle is housed separately. By having one bottle per box or cubby, the bottles are more likely to remain in pristine condition and breakage is kept to a minimum.

Redwood wine racks are similarly strong and durable. However, since redwood is becoming harder and harder to find, the prices for redwood wine racks are significantly higher than mahogany wine racks. Redwood trees are slow growing. The redwood has qualities that most other woods do not, the most significant being the redwood’s resisitence to fire. Only the hottest fires will burn a redwood in its natural state. This is one of the reasons redwood trees are among the largest and oldest trees on earth. Tree farms have been producing the necessary materials for redwood furniture for the last several centuries.

Wood wine racks are the original storage unit used with wine. Large scale wineries use floor to ceiling wine racks to store bottle and barrels. Wood is hardy and durable. Moreover, if damaged, they are relatively easy to replace. Redwood is resistant to flames, making it ideal for large companies concerned with safety. Mahogany wine racks are as durable as redwood, but do not have the flame resistant quality; they are available in a range of sizes and prices. Redwood wine racks are also available in a wide selection, tend to be higher in price that mahogany.

Many companies sell mahogany and redwood wine racks. Wood wine racks are one of the most popular and durable of wine racks…but metal wine racks are catching up rapidly in popularity. Wood wine racks generally come unassembled, with detailed instructions, and the necessary hardware to assemble. Many wine racks, especially the tall and instant cellars come with brackets to mount racks to the wall. Mahogany wine racks and redwood wine racks are a great way to store your wine and are both strong and lasting to protect your wine investment and hobby for years to come.

View the best mahogany wine racks and redwood wine racks we’ve discovered at http://www.wine-racks-selection-guide.com

A counter top wine rack is a perfect solution for wine enthusiasts (or wine enthusiasts at heart) looking for a short term storage solution for smaller quantities of wine. Not only are they stylish, but they are also available in so many varieties of styles, materials and capacities that there is a counter top wine rack to fit the personal tastes of almost anyone. What most people don?t understand, however is that using a counter top wine rack is not as simple as placing it on a counter and filling it with bottles of wine. If your wine is going to be consumed quickly this might be ok, but if you are looking to store a bottle of wine for even more than a couple of weeks there are a few things which should be kept in mind to help keep your wine tasting it?s best when you pop the cork.

• Temperature: A wine rack should never be placed where it is going to be in close contact with extreme heat, whether it is a counter top wine rack, floor standing or wall mounted. Never place a wine rack near a heater, stove, oven or other appliance that generates heat. Wine that becomes too hot can ?cook? and degrades the wine. On the contrary, some wines should never be store in extreme cold either. For example, a wine rack storing red wine should never be stored near cold drafts.
• Sunlight: can also affect the aging process. It is important to keep wines out of direct sunlight, which is one reason many wines, especially reds, are distributed in tinted bottles. As such, white wines are usually the most susceptible to sunlight. Even though UV rays can still affect and if left long enough ruin, a bottle of wine, if your are using a counter top wine rack for short term storage of wine just keeping the bottles out of direct sunlight will be sufficient.
• Vibration: If storing wines for any length of time it is best to put it in a place where large heavy vibrations will not be occurring. For example in my kitchen I have an under counter washing machine/dryer which tends to vibrate and shake quite a bit when in the spin cycle. It would be unwise of me to put a counter top wine rack on that counter because the vibration from the washing machine would cause the wine to become shaken up and disturb the sediment.

Keeping these three simple factors in mind might initially make it a little more difficult to find the perfect place to put your counter top wine rack, but you will thank yourself for it when you open your first bottle of wine and it tastes perfect!

Finest Wine Racks is a major supplier of a variety of wine racks including wood wine racks, metal wine racks, counter top, floor standing wine racks and wine storage systems.

Ken Finnigan – CEO
Finest Wine Racks

Mystery and intrigue surround the disappearance of Roerderer’s presence in Russia. He just vanished, according to Natalia Feduschak writer for the KYIV Post in an article from Sudak, Ukraine dated January 30, 2003. She says, The man himself seems to have just disappeared from Czarist Russia?s winemaking scene. What is known, however, is that the company became one of the leading producers of champagne in the Russian Empire. (A taste of Ukraine, one sip at a time) http://www.kyivpost.com/guide/travel/13471/

Threads of time weave into a legend and unlimited possibilities exist. Where in the world is Roederer?

This sparkling wine producer originally founded in 1776, under Louis Roederer I, spent the first thirty-eight years reaching sales of 2,500,000 bottles, 660,000 in Russia alone, according to http://www.champagne-roederer.com/origine/us/louis.html. The creation of Cristal cuv’ee by Louis II followed in 1876 and by 1909 he was Russia’s top supplier.

After the Great Depression the Roederer family was saved from financial disaster through efforts of the family matriach, Camille-Olry-Roederer in 1932. To this day the grandson, Jean-Claude Rouzaud, along with his son Fre’de’ric steer the 200-year old icon in the United States. With the same genealogical drive of their forefathers and inherited matriachal finesse’ they manage Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes on the four hundred and ninety four acres in France (Cote des Blancs, Montagne de Reims, and Valle’e de la Marne), eventy-five miles northeast of Paris.

Louis Roederer Estates caused flap of a California kind. I didn’t hear it until 2003 and the local talk suggested heated discussions over his presence in the valley began in 2000. According to public record he was there nine years before that.

But, the holdings of Roederer didn’t disappear, they expanded and included an educational component in Siraz country. Five-hundred and eighty acres in Menocino County, specifically Philo have joined the case surrounding the disappearance of Roederer and sparkling Shiraz has become another crop in the area. One part of the mystery is solved. But, still there remains a nine year hole in the story. L’ErmitageBrut his first California wine, debuted in 1989.

According to the Wine Spectator, since he purchased the property he has been seen buying in Bordeaux in 1995, partying in Paris in 1997, and in 1999 selling off parts to a subsidiary named Scharffenberger (also in Philo-8501 Highway 128, (800) 824-7754). Scharffenberger was named Pacific Echo from 1998 to 2004, but he’s back, too, and managed by Maisons Marques et Domaines Ltd. This company was contracted in 1986 by Roederer and continues to maintain exclusivity of the Roederer line, being the only distributor in the United Kingdom. Some say England created sparkling wine. But, argument ceases with unions (at least some). The question is indeed irrelevant in this case, what with the business mix of Roederer and Maisons Marques et Domaines Ltd.

I visited Philo in October of 2003, with a stay at Highland Ranch just south of Roederer Estates. The climate is indeed well-drained and cool that time of year (By all means, take long johns.). Here grapes mature slowly balancing acid and sugar. According to reports this fifth generation Roederer searched since the late 70s for climatic conditions similar to his precious Champagne region in France. The estate’s regional rustic dormers is all that’s seen of the estate from the roadside, so he is still staying hidden somewhat.

I sat a mile and half as the crow flies at a thousand foot elevation, at the ranch with gorgeous views obstructed by redwoods near Hendy Woods National Forest, so I couldn’t see Roederer either. In a little over a year the stir Roederer’s presence caused, with real estate prices not wine, appears amiably settled. I wonder if the Russians know where he is yet.

It turns out the cloak-and-dagger disappearance is an expansion and asset management strategy, which has served well to protect the whereabouts of Roederer.

This excellent sparkler is consumed all over the world. A bottle of Brut can be had for $16.99.

Grapes used in Roederer’s sparklers as Legend Has It

RED-SHIRAZ/SYRAH (Australia/France and U.S.) unlike Petit Sirah

Persian King Jamshid found one of his slaves knocked out in the grape cellar due to the CO2 from fermenting grapes and the king’s distraught mistress meaning to commit suicide, ended up drunk revealing the grapes’ mysterious power. Also, in 1/330 BC the destruction of Persepolis was said to be a direct result of Shiraz grape ingestion per Peter Svans, http://www.uncork.com.au/tidbits10.htm. Others claim it originated in the Rhone Valley of France. http://www.wineintro.com/types/sirah.html. These grapes are vigorous, disease resistant and grow well in cool climates, which the Mendocino hills certainly are ? hosting a flavor of pepper.

RED-PINOT NOIR

The Burgundy (Gaul) region of France touts the beginning of a first century AD legend that the Aedui (Celtic family) brought the grape along with their invasion of Lombardy and Italy, others say Barbarians drove Romans from the already established area and Catholic monks took custody of Pinot Noir.

WHITE/GREEN-CHARDONNAY

As luck would have it, mine ran out searching for legend surrounding the white/green grape. It is thought to have migrated from the 8th century BC to Italy, and somewhere, somehow ended up in the Champagne region of France.

And CHAMPAGNE

Legend and myth continues to blend and meld things into oblivion. Even the word champagne which means white chalky plane. Written on Cognac labels, the reference is to the Cognac area not the area of the same name.

Roederer Estate Inc.
P.O. Box 67
Philo, CA 95466
707 895-2288
info@roedererestate.net
http://www.champagne-roederer.com

For more information see:
http://mag.leftcoastart.com/html/roedererestate.html
http://www.klwines.com/find/search.asp?id=765
http://www.atlasofwineries.com/wineries/scharffenberger.html
http://www.philoapplefarm.com/Map.html (Just north of this farm on the right Roederer Estate sits. Plentiful fields of apple and olive in the Northern Sierra Mountains, add flavor to another part of a growing mystery.)

Linda?s writing appears in From Eulogy to Joy, Beischel, Xlibris Press, 2000, Bootsnall.com, and http://www.ezinearticles.com She loves to travel, write, design, decorate, and paint. Linda studied writing through Long Ridge Writers Group in Connecticut, journalism at MSCD, Denver, and painting at the Art Academy in Loveland, Colorado, USA.

Why are wine clubs begun? There are any number of reasons. Perhaps it is because they get special pricing available only to members of a wine club, perhaps they want to take advantage of the variety available every month, and some form because of the social interaction and sharing their favorites with their friends.

A wine club will explore wines from other countries and will receive information about varieties, vintages, and wineries from around the world. Many of the makers of wine go back for generations. There are wine clubs all over the world, France, Australia, Italy, Spain, and the United States.

There are wine clubs that just started and there are those that have been going for more than one hundred years. Most of the time those that join the clubs are balanced in knowledge and experience without considering the age of the club that they join. Within these clubs comes advise about the proper way to prepare the glasses, tasting methods, winemaking tips, and what wines go best with what foods etc.

Many times the owners of a particular winery will start a wine club devoted to their wine. They can give out early information about their own product. Have early taste tests and give out early information about their harvests so that their enthusiasts can look forward to knowing early on what they have to look forward to. Often this will also lead to the members being offered certain wines that the rest of the public will not have access to, and very likely at reduced prices.

There is a club that has sampled over one hundred different wines! Their discussions become quite lively. Each of the members have tasted over one hundred different wines so the total ranges in the several hundred range with some overlap but possibly not too much.

At the end of the day these clubs provide the many different members with the know how and background of some of the most passionate and well informed makers and drinkers of wine. The amount of information out there is tremendous.

Because of the Internet and the ease of email the sharing of opinions has become simplified. There have been debates about the best vintage, vineyards, the best soil, climates, etc. Political disagreements may actually pale in comparison.

As far as we have been able to tell no wars have broken out over the debate although there has been rumored that the grape has been responsible in part for more than one. The next time you are invited to a wine tasting party or invited to join a wine club just remember the purpose is to have fun and enjoy the wine!

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as champagne gift baskets at http://www.foodandchampagnebaskets.com

Have you ever seen those stiff upper-lipped types doing a spot of the old wine tasting malarkey? You know the form ? sip, swill, spit. Yuck! Well this information has been written to help you understand the form should you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to know what to do. And don’t go thinking I’ll never have to do any wine-tasting because you just don’t know that for sure and the last thing you want is to be caught unaware.

So, on with the tasting…

Study The Wine

Pick up your glass as elegantly as possible. There are two ways this can be done.

a) For chilled wines ? hold the glass by the stem and don’t even touch the bowl.

b) For wine served at room temperature ? pick up the glass by the bowl and hold it cupped in your palm, the stem between your middle two fingers.

Now that you have the glass comfortably in your hand, hold it at a slight angle against something white. If your hostess is worth her salt, she’ll have covered the table in white linen specifically for this purpose (although it does look nice, too).

Be careful not to tip the glass too far ? unless you’re willing to replace an expensive linen tablecloth, that is. You may also need to adjust the distance from your eyes that the glass is held at. Most find that holding it at almost arm’s length is a good starting point although the very short sighted who are also absent minded enough to have left their eye glasses at home may find themselves having to hold the glass almost in front of their noses.

Once you’ve found the correct position, study the colour and clarity of the wine. Now you may well believe that wine’s either red, pink, or white but I’m afraid, if that’s the case, you’re very much mistaken. Wines can be green, yellow, gold, pink, purple, or even black. Evidently, the colour of the wine will indicate the type of grape it was made from ? like me, you, and Jack on the street are likely to know that!

Clarity indicates age. Young wines are more see through and cloudiness can mean there’s something wrong. If that’s the case, I’d suggest putting it back on the table and giving your hostess once of those ‘down your nose’ type looks.

The reason why you’re studying the colour and clarity looks has absolutely no bearing on how the wine will taste but a proper connoisseur enjoys the beauty of wine as well as its taste and …

The Bouquet

No, we’re not talking about the bunch of flowers a bride carries with her down the aisle, we’re talking the smell of wine. Sometimes, if the people at the wine tasting are really posh, they might call it ‘The Nose’.

Still holding your glass in the correct manner, lower your hand somewhat whilst bring your glass to a level position and rotate your wrist so that the wine swirls gently within the bowl. You might want to leave these instructions at this point to go to the kitchen and practise this step with a wineglass half filled with water. After all, it’s just as well to know for sure that you aren’t going to spill expensive red wine over your hostess’s spanking new Axminster.

To swill wine properly, very little wrist movement is actually needed. Just very slight circular movements combined with a right-left movement should do the trick.

The idea behind all this swilling is to bring the wine’s aroma out of the wine itself and into the empty part of the bowl thus allowing it to be smelled and savoured. This is why wine glasses are bulbous. The wide bowl has ample room for swilling while the narrow edge ‘captures’ the bouquet. Clever, eh?

Move your glass to your nose as elegantly as you’re able and bring it in slightly beneath the tip. Inhale deeply. Savour for a few moments and then inhale again. It’s a good idea to exhale between those two inhalations or you might find yourself going dizzy. Do it too often and you’ll faint.

You may now move your glass away from your nose.

At this point, it’s appropriate to make some kind of comment. Don’t imagine you’ll fool anybody into believing you’re an expert but at least you can make it sound as if you’ve actually drunk a glass of decent wine before. Why should the other guests need to know that most of your wine costs ?3.99 at the Co-Op?

Something like mmmm, rich and fruity or oooh, lovely and light will probably do the trick. When talking about red wine, ‘rich’ is usually a good word to use – if the wine’s white, go for ‘light’.

The Actual Tasting

You’ve probably been looking forward to this bit but whatever you do, remember that wine tasting is about taking small sips and not guzzle it down like there’s no tomorrow.

This bit’s actually trickier than you’d expect so you might want to do some more practising.

Bring your glass to your lips, open them slightly and take a small sip. Now close you mouth and roll the wine around on your tongue for a few seconds before allowing it to slide slowly down your throat AND AT THE SAME TIME EXHALE!

The trouble with exhaling whilst swallowing is that some of the liquid might come shooting through your nostrils. Not a pretty sight and, again, think of the Axminster!

If you fancy, you can always take a second sip at this point but never a third. No matter how good that one particular wine is, it’s time to move on to the next.

Other Stuff Worth Knowing

Apart from bottles and glasses, the table will probably hold plates of cheese or, occasionally, sherbet. They’re not there to snack on; they’re used between wines to clean out the taste of the last wine you tasted. Just a little at a time is all that’s needed. Do like a mouse and nibble!

Wear something comfortable and preferably something that doesn’t carry a designer label. After all, if you spill red wine down the front of your best frock, you’re not going to be happy, are you?

That’s it. You’re now clued up enough to pop along to your very first wine tasting party without making a complete idiot of yourself.

Enjoy!

~~ ~~ ~~

Sharon Jacobsen is a freelance writing living in South Cheshire, England. She’s knocked back a good few bottles of wine in her time as well as participated in the odd wine tasting party. To contact Sharon, please visit her website at http://www.sharon-jacobsen.co.uk

Wine is a drink that has been enjoyed by humans for thousands of years. Recent archaeological finds have now even found wine dating back to almost 5,000 years in China.

Nowadays there is an amazing array of wine racks available. Wine has become a passion for millions of people. There are wooden wine racks, but now also various metal ones as well.

Some of the metal wine racks are almost works of art in their own right: fashioned in elegant spirals, or circles, or made to hang on the wall.

But, if you want traditional wine racks, then you should stick to wooden wine racks. Wood such as cedar or pine has been used effectively for hundreds of years to store precious wine.

Wooden wine racks have two distinct advantages over metal ones: first, many people are interested in stackable wine racks. This allows you to grow your wine collection over time; as you procure more wine, you simply buy another stackable unit and place it on top of the one you already have. The second advantage is that wood does not conduct heat as metal can. If you plan to store wine for prolonged periods of time to age it, you want to make sure your wine rack will not conduct heat to the bottle.

This can unfavorably affect the taste of the wine. What a same! Especially if you’ve been saving some bottles to open years later for a special occassion.

In short, traditional wine racks are wooden wine racks….stackable wine racks.

However, if you don’t plan on storing your wine for long periods of time. And you want to purchase an artistic wine rack that is a conversation piece and display it prominently, metal wine racks are the way to go. You would be amazed at how beautiful and classy some of these metal wine racks are.

View the best traditional wine racks and stackable wine racks we’ve found at our resource http://www.wine-racks-selection-guide.com

Wine has become a popular beverage with many Americans, and is sold almost everywhere. This is because it is studied consistently for its wide variety in taste, depending on where it’s produced, and it can be an important part of a meal, since it is known to enhance the taste of certain foods. Thus, residential wine cellars allow a homeowner the space to store their favorite wines and/or build an impressive collection of vintages. Residential wine cellars are also very affordable and don’t take up that much space.

Residential wine cellars allow a wine connoisseur to store wines for a long period of time, or age the wine. Aging a wine contributes to its taste and sophistication. Since a wine also records its environment in its taste, temperature, humidity, light, and vibration will also impact the taste of the wine in residential wine cellars. Generally, 55?F is the average temperature that wines should be kept at. 50? to 60?F is usually acceptable, but some white wines like to be as low at 45?F.

Sudden fluctuations in the temperature can adversely affect the wine’s taste. Humidity of your cellar should stay between 60% and 80%. Exposing your cellar to light should be avoided, because light disrupts the aging process. Excessive vibration of your wine can disturb the sediments found in the bottle.

Residential wine cellars don’t have to cost a lot of money. In fact, you can probably build residential wine cellars yourself with your extra basement space or use an alternative area in your house or apartment. A dark interior closet or pantry will work nicely, although don’t store the wine near strong-smelling foods. Keep your wine away from stoves and heat sources, as they would allow the temperature to fluctuate too much. Cool, damp basements are good as well.

Find wine, bar and alcohol accessories online at WineandBarAccessories.net: whether you’re hosting a dinner party or a wine tasting event, there are a variety of wine and bar accessories any good host should have on hand. From wine racks to cabinets and glasses and corkscrews, a variety of items exist for the wine lovers and hard liquor drinkers in your life. For more on information on fine wines of the world visit Killerwines.com

Champagne is one of the greatest drink in the world and here are some musings on bubbly from famous figures…

?my only regret in life is that I didn?t drink enough Champagne?
John Maynard Keynes

?there comes a time in every woman’s life when the only thing that helps is a glass of Champagne?
Bette Davis

?in victory, you deserve Champagne, in defeat, you need it?
Napoleon Bonaparte

?no government could survive without Champagne. Champagne in the throats of our diplomatic people is like oil in the wheels of an engine?
Joseph Dargent

?I only drink Champagne when I’m happy, and when I’m sad. sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. when I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I am not hungry and drink it when I am. otherwise I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty?
Lily Bollinger

?three be the things I shall never attain: envy, content, and sufficient Champagne?
Dorothy Parker

meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of Champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.
Winston Churchill

?come quickly, I am tasting the stars!?
Dom Perignon

?remember gentlemen, it’s not just France we are fighting for, it’s Champagne!?
Winston Churchill

?gentlemen, in the little moment that remains to us between the crisis and the catastrophe, we may as well drink a glass of Champagne?
Paul Claudel

?in a perfect world, everyone would have a glass of Champagne every evening?
Willie Gluckstern

?Champagne is the one thing that gives me zest when I feel tired?
Brigitte Bardot

?why do I drink Champagne for breakfast? doesn’t everyone??
Noel Coward

?too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right?
Mark Twain

?I had taken two finger-bowls of Champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental and profound?
F Scott Fitzgerald

Whisk Hampers create food gifts and hampers,

champagne gifts, Magnums and Jeroboams for Next Day UK Delivery