English Wine Sparkling since 1662

In 1662, over 30 years before the French Monk Dom Perignon discovered the “methode champenoise” Englishman Christopher Merret wrote a paper in the Royal Society how adding sugar created a secondary fermentation in the bottle.

“Our wine coopers of recent times use vast quantities of sugar and molasses to all sorts of wines to make them drink brisk and sparkling and to give them spirit”

At Blakes Lane Farm, we use traditional methods, ageing our sparkling wine on cork and securing it with an agrafe staple, to enhance complexity and deliver authentic, artisanal character in every bottle.

The agrafe, a sturdy metal staple, has its origins in early Champagne production, where it was traditionally used to secure the cork during the second fermentation in bottle, predating the modern wire cage and helping preserve the wine’s natural effervescence and complexity