_____________________________________________ BRITISH WINE TRADE WAG recently joked that English sparkling is the wine champagne could have been. It’s a revision of the bitter-tinged gag that cava lovers have been telling for years. Here’s a world-class sparkling wine made in the traditional method that lives in the shadow of champagne – the question is whether producers, importers and their marketers, and the…

___________________________________________ LONG WITH CHABLIS and Beaujolais, Chianti was a British wine bar and restaurant list staple in the 1980s, as ubiquitous as prawn cocktails, shoulder pads and mullet hair cuts. But over the following 30 years, as a ‘go-to’ wine it’s lost its way a little as other wines and styles from Europe and the New World have taken centre stage.