The New Wine Everyone Who Loves Champagne Should Know About

For a long time, if you wanted a bottle of sparkling wine that felt truly special, there was one obvious answer.

Champagne.

The name itself has become part of the experience. The cold bottle, the fine bubbles, the sound of the cork, the glass catching the light. It is difficult to replace something that has been associated with celebrations for generations.

But there is a new bottle that has been quietly making people look in a completely different direction.

Its name is Domaine Evremond Classic Cuvée, and the interesting part is not only the wine itself. It is where it comes from — and who is behind it.

This is English sparkling wine made in Kent.

And behind the project is none other than Taittinger, one of Champagne's most recognizable names.

Champagne Goes to England

At first, the idea sounds almost strange.

Why would a famous Champagne house travel across the English Channel to make sparkling wine?

But when you look at the Kent countryside, the idea suddenly makes much more sense.

Domaine Evremond is located near the village of Chilham in Kent, an area known for its chalky soils. Those soils, together with the relatively cool climate, have some important similarities to the conditions found in Champagne.

Taittinger began the project in 2015 with British wine specialist Patrick McGrath and Hatch Mansfield. The first vines were planted in 2017, with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier — the three classic Champagne varieties.

But this wasn't a quick celebrity wine project.

It took years.

The first full harvest came in 2019, the winery followed, and the first Domaine Evremond Classic Cuvée was finally released in spring 2025.

That patience is important.

Good sparkling wine isn't something you can simply throw together and put on a shelf a few months later.

Domaine Evremond / Domaine Evremond official website

So, Is It Actually Like Champagne?

This is where things get interesting.

Domaine Evremond isn't Champagne. Champagne is a protected regional designation, and this wine is English.

But stylistically, there are some very obvious connections.

The first Classic Cuvée uses Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier and was aged for three years on its lees. It is produced using the traditional method — the same fundamental winemaking method used for Champagne.

The result is not supposed to be a copy of French Champagne.

And that's probably what makes it more interesting.

Tasting notes describe citrus, apple, toast, mineral character and a slight saline quality, with fine, creamy bubbles. The wine has the freshness you would expect from a cool-climate sparkling wine, but enough texture to make it feel more serious than an ordinary party fizz.

In other words, if you like Champagne because of its elegance and freshness rather than simply because of the name on the bottle, this is definitely one to put on your radar.

The Bottle Has a Story

There is also something very cool about drinking a wine that represents the beginning of something.

Domaine Evremond is not a vineyard with hundreds of years of history.

The vines are young.

The project itself is young.

The first commercial wine only appeared in 2025.

That makes it feel less like buying another established luxury product and more like discovering a new chapter in the wine world.

And the timing couldn't be better.

English sparkling wine has been growing rapidly in reputation, with producers from southern England increasingly being taken seriously by wine lovers around the world. The combination of chalky soils, cool temperatures and traditional winemaking has created wines that can be remarkably fresh and sophisticated.

Domaine Evremond simply has an unusually famous name behind it.

The Taittinger Connection

Let's be honest.

If this were just another English sparkling wine, most people outside the wine world probably wouldn't have heard about it.

But Taittinger changes the story.

The French Champagne house isn't simply putting its name on an English bottle. The company invested in the vineyard and has been involved in the project from the beginning.

The winemaking is also being overseen by Taittinger's team, including cellar master Alexandre Ponnavoy.

That gives the wine a fascinating identity.

It is English in origin, but it has been created with decades of Champagne experience behind it.

French know-how.

English soil.

A completely different place.

And a new generation of sparkling wine.

Domaine Evremond / Domaine Evremond official website

What Does It Taste Like?

You don't need to be a wine expert to understand the appeal.

Think fresh citrus first.

Then green apple and other light fruit.

There is also a mineral, almost chalky character, followed by subtle toast and creamy notes from the time spent ageing on the lees.

The bubbles are fine rather than aggressive.

It isn't the sort of sparkling wine that screams for attention the moment you pour it.

It is more elegant than that.

And that makes it particularly easy to imagine at dinner rather than only at midnight on New Year's Eve.

The official Domaine Evremond profile describes the Classic Cuvée as “pure, elegant and distinctive,” while its current Edition I is a blend of 55% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Meunier, with three years of lees ageing.

The current listed price from the estate is £55 a bottle, so this isn't positioned as cheap fizz.

It is positioned as a premium bottle.

A New Kind of Luxury?

This is perhaps the most interesting part.

Luxury wine used to be very much about recognition.

You wanted the bottle everyone knew.

Now there is something appealing about being the person who knows about the bottle before everyone else does.

Domaine Evremond fits perfectly into that mood.

It isn't trying to pretend Champagne doesn't exist.

It doesn't need to.

Instead, it offers something slightly different: the feeling of discovering a new luxury product before it becomes completely familiar.

And there is another reason it feels modern.

The wine comes from England, a country that many people still don't automatically associate with serious wine production.

That perception is changing quickly.

In 2026, English sparkling wine is no longer just a curiosity. It has become one of the most interesting developments in the international wine world.

Would I Choose It Instead of Champagne?

That's a difficult question.

If you are buying Champagne because you want Champagne, nothing else can completely replace it.

But if what you actually want is a beautiful bottle of sophisticated sparkling wine with fine bubbles, freshness, complexity and a good story behind it, Domaine Evremond suddenly becomes very interesting.

And perhaps that's the better way to look at it.

Not as “the Champagne replacement.”

But as one of the new wines helping to change what premium sparkling wine can be.

The next time someone opens a bottle and says, “This isn't Champagne,” you might actually find yourself thinking:

Good.

Because maybe the fun isn't always in drinking what we've known for decades.

Sometimes it's in discovering what comes next.

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