An online retailer of artisan champagne has been crowned the UK’s ‘Champagne & Sparkling Specialist Retailer of the Year’, just two years since the company was launched.
Sip Champagnes has been awarded this prestigious accolade by the world’s leading wine media brand, Decanter, who singled out the newcomer for its “laser-like focus on cutting-edge wines from the region”. Sip Champagnes was also a runner up in the ‘Best Newcomer’ and ‘Judges Choice’ categories.
Decanter engages with wine lovers in over 100 countries around the globe, providing authoritative content and independent advice on the world’s best wines and champagnes. The annual Decanter Retailer Awards provides an indispensable guide to the best wine shops, online retail, wine specialists and wine support services in the UK.
Sip Champagnes was launched by Daniel Blatchford and his business partner, Peter Crawford, in 2020.
Daniel Blatchford, Sip Champagnes’ co-founder, said: “We’re incredibly proud to have been awarded the title of UK’s ‘Champagne & Sparkling Specialist Retailer of the Year’ by Decanter just two years since setting up the company.
“We put our success down to our continued focus on quality, as well as sourcing and supplying only the best small-batch, handcrafted champagne straight to consumers and the hospitality trade from France’s iconic wine region.
“With the UK’s largest collection of 60 Champagne producers and over 236 individual cuvées from across 25 villages in our range, Sip Champagnes only deals with ethically-sourced and artisan products direct from the farmer.
“Despite a wider industry decline, UK consumers have certainly not lost their taste for small-batch and handcrafted champagne sourced straight from the grower. Champagne lovers are also willing to pay a premium for a unique, artisan and quality product, including our exclusive collection that they can’t buy anywhere else in the UK.”
The latest three releases from Sip Champagnes are unavailable to buy anywhere else in the UK and it is the first time ever that these three new producers are being made available to consumers and the hospitality trade and outside France.
This summer, Sip Champagnes reported a record 219% boost to sales in the last year despite a wider slump across the industry.
Sip Champagnes, which also won The Drinks Business ‘Specialist Online Retailer of the Year Award’ for 2022, is also bucking the industry trend with month-on-month sales growth in 2022 as UK consumers develop a taste for unique grower champagne.
Until Sip Champagnes came along, the dominance of the big wine houses and supermarket champagne has meant that champagne choice has been very limited in the UK.
Alongside its online store, which sells individual bottles and curated cases, Sip Champagnes also offers curated monthly subscription packages to help people enhance their understanding of the grower Champagne movement. Alongside truly exceptional bottles, there are tasting notes and even live tasting sessions with the farmers themselves.
All Sip Champagnes packaging is made from recycled material and is 100% recyclable. The company also invests in carbon offsetting programmes to reduce its environmental impact and plants a tree for every order placed.
