Jewellery designers can win £5,000 in new Monica Vinader sustainable jewellery competition

If I say the word Champagne to you, what images are conjured? An A-list soirée on a yacht in Nice? A New Year’s party of Gatsby proportions? It’s the drink of the Jazz Age, a symbol of conspicuous consumption, where how much you consume is as important as what it is you’re consuming.  Except, it’s not quite that. Not anymore, anyway. Take a walk around any of Champagne’s vineyards and you’ll find something very different. Yes, when a bottle leaves the region, chances are that it’s off somewhere to be enjoyed without much thought to the environmental consequences – that’s kind of how it should be. However, while the grapes are growing, and your favourite bubbly is maturing, the growers of Champagne have sustainability and the environment at the forefront of their minds – it’s the reason for their livelihood, after all.