I cannot understand at all why it is not possible, in the UK or elsewhere, to purchase some of the planet’s most exciting sparkling wines, even though these emerging stars have proved their quality and consistency at the Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships (CSWWC) year after year. That is why the CSWWC will be introducing a Seeking Representation service on its website that will be totally free for both producers and shippers to utilize.
While there are some famous wines that fly off the shelf—and it’s the shippers that must compete to represent those—most do not. They require selling, and the less prominent a wine’s reputation is, the more difficult it is for merchants, restaurants, and retailers to sell those wines to their customers. All the wines listed on our Seeking Representation service will be able to hit the road running, with a list of medals and trophies. Here is a sneak preview of some of the very best wines to grace our competition and looking for representation:
Available world-class wines
Midalidare is a one-off. Although I had enjoyed many still wines from Bulgaria, particularly reds, when researching my Sotheby’s encyclopedia, I had not come across any potentially fine-quality sparkling wine when researching my Christie’s encyclopedia. Until November 2018, that is, when I doglegged to this country on my way from Hungary to Canada. In Sofia, I had arranged to taste everything sparkling from Bulgaria, and Midalidare stood out like a shining beacon. I met Aleksandar Aleksiev, its general manager and senior winemaker, and convinced him to enter the CSWWC in 2019, when Midalidare won two Best in Class, a gold medal, and two silvers, collecting the Tony Jordan Rising Star trophy in the process. The very next year, Midalidare demonstrated how deserving it was of the Rising Star trophy by winning the World Champion Classic Blanc de Blancs trophy and the Chairman’s Trophy. By 2023, it was winning four golds and six silvers. The quality and consistency here is comparable to that expected from the best producers in Trentodoc or Franciacorta, yet this world-class sparkling wine is impossible to find outside of Bulgaria, where, I fear, it is probably not appreciated.
Milazzo first entered the CSWWC in 2020, one year after Midalidare, but it impressed us every bit as much. Sicily is one of the most beautiful islands in the Mediterranean, with vineyards that are capable of producing very nice still wines, but this baking hot rock at the foot of Italy is a far cry from being a natural choice for sparkling-wine production. Yet, defying the odds, Milazzo produces world-class sparkling wines across the range. There is nothing heaving here. Nothing to suggest its origins. Just classic, structured, world-class sparkling wines, many of which the CSWWC regularly showers in gold. In 2023, Milazzo won a whopping seven gold medals and the Tony Jordan Rising Star trophy. How well deserved that trophy was became validated in 2024, when Milazzo won the Best Italian Sparkling Wine trophy. However impressed the judges had been in previous years, none of us would have predicted such an achievement. Standing at the podium during that presentation, the only thing that made me happier was to see Matteo Lunelli of Ferrari get to his feet and applaud enthusiastically with a big grin on his face. When I mentioned this to him afterwards, he said it was good for Italy—good that Italy has such diversity at the very top of its sparkling wine.
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Carassia is another one-off, world-class sparkling-wine producer that has won the Rising Star trophy. In fact, Carassia won the very first Rising Star trophy we awarded. It was in 2018, a year before we named the trophy for our late, lamented, and hugely respected colleague and friend Tony Jordan. No other sparkling-wine producer comes remotely close to Carassia, which is best known for its rosé, which received the Chairman’s Trophy in 2021, and its blanc de blancs, which won the World Champion Classic Blanc de Blancs trophy in 2023.
Maset has to be the best-quality Cava not exported to the UK. The winery dates back to 1777, long before the birth of Cava, but carries this history lightly thanks to the fresh, crisp, modern style of its sparkling wines. This year Maset collected five gold medals and a Best in Class for Cava Brut Nature style, while in 2023 it won World Champion Organic Sparkling Wine, Best Cava, and Best Spanish Brut Nature.
Maso Martis is a highly consistent, top-quality boutique producer located on the lower slopes of Monte Calisio, where you will enjoy one of the most magnificent views of the Val d’Adige. It is owned and run by Antonio and Roberta Stelzer with their daughters, Alessandra and Maddalena—a wonderfully happy and hardworking family whose organic wines seem to reflect their own energetic attitude to life. Maso Martis wines are gastronomic in style and sought out by serious aficionados of Trentodoc. They regularly pick up top awards at the CSWWC: Best Italian Sparkling Wine in 2017; Best Trentodoc in 2018 and 2017; Best Trentodoc Brut Nature in 2024; and Best Trentodoc Organic in 2023, 2022, and 2019. With a tiny annual production of 60,000 bottles, this is tailor-made for the on-trade.
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Other gold-medal winners this year who are also seeking UK representation are: Albet i Noya (Classic Penedès), Castel Faglia (Franciacorta), Firriato (Sicily), LeVide (Trentodoc), Pago de Tharsys (Cava), Tosti 1820 (Alta Langa), Villa Franciacorta (Franciacorta), and Weingut Kolm (Austria).
More information and contact details will be available for each producer at champagnesparklingwwc.co.uk when the Seeking Representation service is up and running; in the meantime, please contact me at tom@cswwc.com if you would like to be put in touch with the right person, no strings attached.
