Tasting of the Future

British wine expert Robert Joseph describes his first adventure to Marlborough’s Brancott Estate in the Telegraph, charting the vineyard’s journey from the beginning to the present day. “By 2011, when Brancott Estate had become the biggest selling New Zealand winery,” Joseph writes, “it took another innovative step into the unknown with the release of their first sparkling sauvignon blanc. Once again, as in 1973, the traditionalists shook their heads and questioned the wisdom of using this grape variety for fizz. It’s nothing like champagne, and that’s what I, as a keen time traveller, love about it – the fact that it tastes of the future rather than the past.”