Learn from the experts at Decanter’s world-class tutored tastings. Masterclasses last 90 minutes.

Tickets are sold separately to Grand Tasting and Discovery Tasting tickets and places are strictly limited.

Back in the 1990s, Daniel Thibault, who was then Charles Heidsieck’s cellarmaster, came up with the idea of adding a mis en cave (laid in cellar) date on his non-vintage Champagnes. His reasoning was to give consumers an insight into how the wines change over time, ultimately answering the question, Can non-vintage Champagne age well? This masterclass provides a rare opportunity to find out. Guests will taste eight iterations of Charles Heidsieck’s NV Mis en Cave Champagne under the expert guidance of current cellarmaster Cyril Brun in what promises to be a fascinating (and enlightening) event.

Tuscan wine changed in 1971 with the first commercial release of Sassicaia, made at Tenuta San Guido in Bolgheri in 1968. Creating this Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant wine, from a then relatively obscure region, was daring but the thought process was clear: Marchese Mario Incisa della Rochetta, Tenuta San Guido’s founder, had recognised the similarity of the estate’s terroir to that of Graves (Sassicaia means ‘stone’ in Italian). He imported French vines and began experimenting. Sassicaia soon rose to fame, becoming a seminal ‘SuperTuscan’. During this exceptional tasting, Priscilla Incisa della Rochetta will provide a historical context, with Susan Hulme MW guiding tasters through the wines’ evolution over time. A masterclass not to be missed.

​In the 1990s, British vigneron Jonathan Maltus became a leading light of the garagiste movement in Saint-Emilion, which sought to cut through the elitism and do things differently. In 2016, he received an OBE for services in wine. This masterclass will give clear insight into Maltus’s winemaking mind by focusing on ten wines from two of his famed single-vineyard bottlings: six vintages of Le Dôme (made predominantly from Cabernet Franc) and four vintages of Vieux Château Mazerat (predominantly Merlot). Tasters will have the rare opportunity to gain first-hand insight into the creation of these two standout Saint-Emilion grands crus.