Anthology Series Bundle

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.

On California captures the essence of California’s spectacular array of wines. Beyond the intricate flavours of Pinot Noir, the power of Cabernet Sauvignon and the elegance of Chardonnay, it asks what brought these wines to the Golden State in the first place. What were the hopes, fears and dreams of the 18th-century pioneers who first shaped them, and what motivates the 21st-century visionaries who pave the way now? It charts the triumph over phylloxera and Prohibition, the mighty influence of the Pacific, and the plus-points of being in a seismic hotzone...

When things turn out right for Bordeaux, as they frequently do, its wines are sublime. They inspire many thousands of tributes, from Samuel Pepys’ succinct reviews to the most rhapsodic of Michael Broadbent’s tasting notes – in short, over 300 years of wine writing. On Bordeaux is a collection of the best bits, from our best-loved wine writers, critics and commentators, set around 10 of the themes that make Bordeaux tick.