Lovely bubbly

Dec 4 2009 by Helen Savage, The Journal

THE owner of a French transport company who’s passionate about fine fizz recently asked me to translate an email he’d just received from an English friend. This friend had been appointed manager of a large London wine shop. He is enormously keen, he wrote, to find champagne from good, small producers rather than from the big houses. Could he suggest some names and addresses?

Although every major Champagne house admits to a drop in sales in the UK over the last year, demand for ‘grower Champagnes’ seems to be increasing.

Fiona Amann, the former head of events here at The Journal and Evening Chronicle, is delighted. Four years ago she founded ‘Lovely Bubbly’ with her husband Mike, with the idea of selling just such high quality Champagne. And despite the tricky economic climate, she says she has no regrets at all.

Their decision to target small, high- quality houses and one very good co-operative cellar was brave and forward-looking at the time. A French colleague gave Fiona and Mike introductions to some likely producers.

"We wanted to take away the snobbery that sometimes surrounds Champagne," Fiona told me. "We go for what’s in the bottle rather than what name’s on the label." But she found that northern customers weren’t too impressed. It seems that we (still) prefer the well-known brands. "There’s a definite difference between the North and the South," says Fiona.

"In London, Champagne lovers seem to be looking for something different." This thirst for the new has enabled them to win contracts to supply wine to a number of top London restaurants, including the award-winning Michael Moore of Blandford Street.

Fiona and Mike’s original target was champagne for corporate clients. The credit crunch made this tough; few firms wanted to be seen splashing out on such a luxury item.

Four years ago less than a third of their sales from their website (www.lovelybubbly.co.uk) were to private customers like you and me, now it’s around 60% and growing. Despite the fall in the value of sterling against the Euro which has helped to make Champagne much more expensive Lovely Bubbly is doing well.