Plymouth businessman crowned UK's ‘Champagne & Sparkling Specialist Retailer of the Year’

A businessman from Plymouth is popping open the fizz this week after his company was crowned the UK's ‘Champagne & Sparkling Specialist Retailer of the Year’, just two years since the company was launched. 

Daniel Blatchford, 38, who attended Hele's School in Plympton and the University of the West of England in Bristol, launched Sip Champagnes with his business partner, Peter Crawford, in 2020. 

Just two years later, 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”, and in the words of one judge, “is changing the game for Champagne.” 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’ co-founder, Daniel Blatchford, 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.”

Daniel added: “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.”

Daniel is an experienced Product Strategist and Director. Having owned, designed and built successful cross-platform digital products, teams and services for both start-ups to enterprises, across the media, property, utility and finance sectors, his passion is all things digital.

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. 

The dominance of the big wine houses and supermarket champagne has meant that champagne choice has been very limited in the UK until Sip Champagnes came along. The small producers previously had no supply chain and no access to high-end restaurants, bars, hotels and wine boutiques, which meant consumers had little choice, until now.

Alongside their 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. They also invest in carbon offsetting programmes to reduce their environmental impact and they plant a tree for every order placed.

For more information on Sip Champagnes and its latest UK releases,  visit https://sipchampagnes.com/collections/new-producers-champagnes and follow on social media, including Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sipchampagnes; Twitter https://twitter.com/ChampagnesSip and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sip_champagnes