A diffrent approach

This is an international blog about champagne, fine wine & culinary with a French spin and a German accent.

“Sur la pointe”, you may pronounce it [sy:r lɑ pwɑnt], means “on the point”. This comes from the ballet (remember ballerinas on tiptoe?), but also from Champagne. The bottles are stored there for a long time “sur pointe”, that is, upside down. In Germany, however, “sur la pointe” can be translated not only as “on the point”, but also as “to the point”. Both together capture what this blog is all about: top products without chichi.

Of course, they don’t come out of nowhere. This page is therefore also dedicated to their history, their origins and the savoir-faire that makes them possible – and of course the people behind them. Moreover, great wines and top culinary products do not stand outside this world, but are part of it. Fine Wine & Dining is an outstanding part of our culture, but it is also hard-hitting business. And it has a share in the consumption of global resources that must be reduced. This blog is also about that.

“The Brain of Champagne”

My name is Stefan Pegatzky. Since 2014, I have been writing in classic print media as a journalist and author, mainly about food and drink. The close cooperation with the Tre Torri publishing house and “FINE-Das Weinmagazin” has so far resulted in over 100 reports from all over the world and numerous background essays. In addition, I have been involved in a good 20 book productions so far. My 2021 volume “Champagne. Die 100 wichtigsten Maisons, Winzer und Kooperativen” was awarded the German Cookbook Prize in gold as the best wine book of the year. For Hagen Hoppenstedt, Beverage Manager of the KaDeWe in Berlin, I am simply “The Brain of Champagne”. Between 2022 and 2024, I wrote about the French wine industry in particular for the industry magazine “Wein+Markt“. In the news ticker and the “faxline” mailing, my articles bore the abbreviation “peg”. Since this year, I have also been working for the Meiniger publishing house, which that is “Weinwirtschaft“, “Meininger’s Sommelier” and “Champagne Magazin” (in short news as “sp”).

I started the bilingual blog Sur-la-pointe.com because the following for truly exquisite products is international and the crucial discussions about food and drink are held in English. Because the blog is run on servers of my company Time Tunnel Images, an online photo gallery and my second professional mainstay, this name pops up occasionally. The love of photography is also behind the fact that almost all the pictures on the blog are taken by me.

© Image: FINE – Das Weinmagazin