Howl & Grappa FIZZY BUM BUM #4, Cornwall, England

BinTwo’s Fizzy Bum Bum #4 is the fourth edition of our very own sparkling wine. Crisp, fresh and very lively. A riot of grapefruit and pineapple flavours. Is it a serious highbrow wine? No. Is it delicious and a whole lot of fun? Absolutely. Do NOT cellar this wine for years. Chill it and drink it with people you like.

We clearly love it but what do others say:

“Playful, interesting expression of Solaris” Fergus Elias, Head Winemaker Balfour Wine Estate.

“Stupid, fizzy, delicious wine” Dan Kirby, Flint Wines and Master of Wine level 2 student.

“It’s like alcoholic Lilt! I could sit outside a bar and drink a lot of this” Louise, ‘Cork Dorks’

“I actually like this one. Can I have another glass?” Mary - my wife and biggest critic (thanks babe!)

This year for the first time we’ve made FBB#4 using the secondary fermentation method rather than bottling it as a pet nat. To be honest this was more by accident than design - fermentation ran more quickly than expected and the wine hit the time critical bottling window for pet nat before my bottles arrived! Bottle pet nat a few hours too early and it can be too fizzy and lively and be prone to ‘gushing’ on opening. Bottle it a few hours too late and you’ve got a flat and disappointing wine on your hands. But sometimes these mishaps point you in new directions that work out very well and we think FBB#4 might be a case in point. Using the same secondary fermentation process used in Champagne and English Sparkling Wine gives us a lot more control and more predictable results. It also allows more time to work with the base wine to get it into a happy place. This year FBB#4 is a blend of Solaris that was fermented in a terracotta egg (producing a finer, more mineral wine) and Solaris made in a stainless steel tank (producing a livelier, brighter, fruitier wine). Together we think we’ve found a real sweet spot blend. Producing a sparkling wine through secondary fermentation and then disgorging it to remove the lees is a lot more work but we think the results are worth it and we hope you agree.

FBB#4 is also the first version of FBB made entirely by our own hands in our very own craft winery - Howl & Grappa. The testing weather conditions of the summer of 2022 made for a difficult year for growers in the UK. So we’re grateful as ever to Clive and Lisa from Halfpenny Green Vineyard (who just so happen to be customers at BinTwo) for selling us a tonne of super clean of Solaris. .

Just 400 bottles made making it (by this questionable measure at least) the most exclusive sparkling wine in the country…

Why ‘Fizzy Bum Bum? It’s all down to a little microorganism - the small amount of yeast that we added to kick start our fermentation. A super-yeast capable of such wizardry deserves a grand title. Sadly, its name is Bum Bum. Life isn’t always fair. To compensate for this injustice, we honoured our yeasty friend by naming our wine ‘Fizzy Bum Bum’.  Plus - love it or loathe it - it’s not a name you’ll forget in a hurry…