Champagne film featuring Stephen Fry to launch at Cannes

A film about Champagne featuring Stephen Fry, a range of high-profile figures from the French sparkling wine region, and UK wine writers is to launch at Cannes in the summer.

Called Sparkling: The Story of Champagne, the film is described as a feature length documentary, and has been created by a London-based independent production company called Swipe Films.

Director, Frank Mannion, described the film as “a love letter to the joys and pleasures of Champagne,” commenting that he was able to shoot the documentary during the lockdown because “Champagne producers were classified as essential workers.”

Among those who feature in the film is English actor and comedian Stephen Fry, who has some fascinating, well researched and strongly held opinions on the subject of and history of Champagne, according to Mannion.

Also appearing in the documentary are Taittinger president Vitalie Taittinger, Lanson-BCC chairman Bruno Paillard, Louis Roederer cellar master Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon, Dom Perignon chef de caves Vincent Chaperon, as well as wine writers Oz Clarke and Tom Stevenson; authors, Don & Petie Kladstrup, and wine merchant, Tony Laithwaite.

A further figure in the documentary is Sir Nicholas Soames, the former Tory Party MP and grand-son of Winston Churchill.

Among the Champagne houses featured are Pol Roger, Pommery, Piper Heidsieck, Taittinger, Dom Pérignon, Bruno Paillard, De Venoge, Louis Roederer, Jay-Z’s Armand de Brignac and Brad Pitt’s newly launched Champagne Fleur de Miraval, who appears briefly in the film promoting his pink fizz, according to Mannion.

The film was shot on location in France, England and New York. Frank Mannion directed the film, and it is produced by Oxana Popkova and Frank Mannion, and edited by Charlie Emseis.

Events and locations include Windsor Great Park Vineyard, Domaine Evremond, Hattingley Valley, Hush Heath Estate, the Royal Society, the EE BAFTAs, the SAG Awards (both sponsored by Taittinger), the Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships and further locations in New York, including the Bemelsman Bar and Baccarat Bar.

Swipe Films is a London-based independent production, sales and distribution company. Its previous wine-themed films include Tu Seras Mon Fils (shot at Clos Fourtet in St Emilion) starring Niels Arestrup & Lorant Deutsch and Le Jour Se Leve (Wine Calling), about natural wine producers.

Swipe Films is completing post-production on Sparkling:The Story of Champagne, and will launch it at the Cannes Film Festival this summer.