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A new docu-film exploring the profile and history of champagne, and starring Stephen Fry, offers a light-hearted look at the world's most prestigious sparkling wines.
Sparkling: The Story of Champagne, released in June, is described as "a love letter to the joys and pleasures of champagne," by the director, Frank Mannion. It offers an 88-minute journey into the fascinating world of champagne, and features the affable and insightful English actor and comedian Stephen Fry.
The film also includes a host of heads of heavyweight champagne houses, like Taittinger, Lanson-BCC, Louis Roederer and Dom Pérignon, as well as wine writers Oz Clarke and Tom Stevenson; authors Don and Petie Kladstrup, and wine merchant Tony Laithwaite and Sir Nicholas Soames, the former Tory Party MP and grand-son of Winston Churchill, who famously drank thousands of Imperial Pint sized bottles of Pol Roger in his lifetime.
It's an amiable dig into premium wine-tasting territory, from marketing (where even James Bond gets a look in) to the impact of climate change in the Champagne region, leading to the likes of Pommery and Taittinger planting vineyards in the south of England. Even the Queen's vineyard at Windsor gets a look in.
"We were fortunate to be able to shoot during lockdown as champagne producers were classified as essential workers. Hopefully, audiences around the world will discover that the film is an excellent vintage, and will immerse themselves in the world of champagne and raise a toast to better things ahead in 2021,” Mannion of Swipe Films went on to say.
Here's a taster below:
The film featured in UK cinemas from June 25, with future plans to screen in the US.
