Your digital guidebook to the world of Champagne
My palate is one for purity, elegance and vivacity. Regarding champagne, I love what is in the glass but I also love what lies beyond. Champagne is an intriguingly complex and diverse region. A world of luxury and a truly fine wine. Still, where champagne is, fun begins. But knowing more makes it even greater fun. This is the Essence of Champagne.
Essi Avellan MW
Get access to the full site by becoming a member

Join

Explore Essence of Champagne with Essi Avellan MW. Renowned champagne specialist and Master of Wine, Essi Avellan’s personal champagne site offers you a brand new source of unbiased champagne opinions. Discover Essi’s vast library of recent tasting notes, Essi’s blog, essential champagne information, latest news, as well as the results of the champagne awards to which her palate has contributed.
What the others say
“Essi has a mind like a steel trap! And she is uniquely qualified. Of all the Champagne specialists I know, Essi is the best and most consistent taster I have encountered, and I have tasted thousands of Champagnes with her, so that is no throwaway statement.”
Tom Stevenson, wine writer and champagne specialist
”One senses a new voice – convincing, precise, analytical and mercifully free of dogmatic judgment masquerading as incontrovertible truth. Put another way, Avellan wears her knowledge and authority lightly, born of quiet self-confidence in the accuracy of her own palate, which is one of the best in the effervescence world.”
Michael Edwards, wine writer and champagne specialist
Christies World Encyclopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine 4th Edition

Latest blog

Essi Avellan on Club Oenologique: Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve

Champagne’s ‘Mis en Cave’ cuvée www.cluboenologique.com Club O Collection 20 January 2021 It has gained a reputation as the best value non-vintage Champagne, but Charles Heidsieck’s Brut Réserve has a complex backstory. As a special edition of the wines is released, Essi Avellan MW delves into its past and present, and reviews the latest bottlings […]

Featured house

La Borderie

There was a hundred years’ break in pressing at this family estate, a period when they only sold grapes to the cooperatives and négociants of the region. Simon Normand and his sister Marie started own production in 2013 and first wines were sold in 2017.

News

Review of Christie’s World Encyclopedia on Champagne and Sparkling Wine by Anthony Rose

Christie’s World Encyclopedia of Champagne & Sparkling Wine (4th Edition) Tom Stevenson and Essi Avellan MW REVIEWED BY ANTHONY ROSE The World of Fine Wine | ISSUE 70 | 2020 ‘An authoritative, comprehensive guide to the ever-growing world of fine fizz’ Read the full article here: WFW70_Preview_Book_Rose_Christie’s Encyclopedia