Fizz!

Sparkling wine has delighted humanity for nearly five-hundred years. It has become essential at celebratory meals, a toast to new marriages, new babies, new jobs, and is even used to launch ships, but there’s more to it than the fizzy and festive. In Fizz!, Anthony Rose takes an in-depth look at sparkling wines of the world, exploring how and where they are made, and why they are so pleasing to drink.

The first part of Fizz! explores the history of sparkling wine, including early accidents and experiments in sparkling winemaking, its nineteenth-century surge in popularity (and associated debauchery) and the breakthroughs in vineyard and cellar that ensured Champagne’s place among the great wines of the world. Rose then goes on to detail fizz-making techniques, from the traditional method to carbonation, and explores the terroirs and grapes suited to producing the wines, from the Champagne trio of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier to the native varieties producing interesting effervescence worldwide.

Following a look at the science behind the bubbles Rose begins his global quest in search of sparkling wines. Travelling Europe, from Portugal to Moldova, he samples Spanish Cava, proves there’s more to France than Champagne, finds out why southern England makes some of the world’s best bubbles, discovers Sekt secrets of the Germans and explores Italy beyond the Prosecco that began the new fashion for fizz. Journeying further afield, Rose recommends the best fizz from California, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, tastes some of South Africa’s Cap Classique and even finds sparklers of note in Japan and China.

This comprehensive celebration of sparkling wine is rounded off with thorough appendices, making it an essential reference for fizz lovers and students of wine.