Dinner with Tiffany... and the wines of Nugan Estate

Tiffany Nugan hosted a terrific dinner at Flow in Yorkville, at which she showcased her familiy's range of well priced wines from Australia.

Tiffany is part of the third generation of Nugans in Riverina, New South Wales. The family's successful fruit and vegetable juice business hit a brick wall when GATT agreements flooded Oz with cheap imports, so Tiffany and her brother Matthew decided to diversify into wine and launched Nugan Estate in 2001. By last year, Nugan ranked as Australia's 13th largest wine exporter, their rapid rise helped by good quality at good prices.

Reds, whites and a sweet wine too: the wines of Nugan Estate.

Mumm & Perrier-Jouet do it at Thuet

Perrier-Jouet was formed when two family-owned champagne houses were joined by a marriage. Unlike Charles and Di's marriage, three was not a crowd, and Mumm joined too. Anyway they're all owned by a large conglomerate now, but they haven't compromised a bit on quality.

An even better marriage was the champagnes with the fine food of Marc Thuet. Thuet prepared a five course brunch to showcase the premium cuvee champagnes at his restaurant.

FInd out more about the great food and excellent champagnes.

Creme de la Crémant

No French region apart from the real thing can call its sparkling wines "champagne", but neither can producers in Champagne refer to their wines as "crémant".

Alsace has long been an in-the-know favourite for those seeking less ruinously priced bubbly from France.Their sparkling wines are called crémant and most are just $20 or so.

Here's what they're like.

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Official launch will be in October with "live" reports from Champagne and lots more stories and tasting notes.

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