Bisser

Ivan Plachkov found the name in Kent. In 2013 he spent time at a sparkling winery in Tenterden, working as a cellar hand through filtration, bottling, disgorgement and corking. The winery explains Bisser as Bessarabia joined to the little beads of bubbles in the glass, the Ukrainian "бісеринки".

It is a blanc de blancs from the family's own Chardonnay on the slopes above Lake Yalpuh, picked by hand and made by the traditional method. Disgorgement is done by hand.

Bisser carries no harvest year, and the winery dates each release by its tirage year instead. According to Epicentr, a Ukrainian retailer, the blend combines reserve wines aged one to three years with young base wine. The winery's page, written for an earlier release, gives a run of 18,000 bottles.

Sources disagree on time on the lees. The winery's page gives at least 18 months in one place and at least three years in another. The back label of this bottling, from the 2024 tirage, says more than two years.

The line has grown around it: there is a rosé Bisser from Cabernet Sauvignon, and a small release of 250 bottles from the 2018 tirage.