Christmas 2011: Best Champagne
- Expert Champagne and sparkling wine choices
- Tips from experts on getting the most from your Christmas fizz
- Find some top tipples for under a tenner
You don’t have to pay top prices for your Christmas fizz according to the latest Which? taste tests.
All four of the champagnes awarded the Which? Best Buy accolade cost under £20 and were ranked above well known labels Lanson, Moët & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot.
Waitrose proved the star of the show - it had our only Best Buy sparkling wine this year with a ‘lively and crisp’ Cava scoring 78%, as well as a Best Buy Brut champagne.
Winning champagnes
Morrisons' The Best Brut Champagne (£19.99) came top in the blind tasting with a score of 84% and is the only champagne brand to win a Best Buy two years running.
The Co-operative Les Pionniers Champagne (£17.99) was next up with 81%, narrowly ahead of Waitrose Brut Champagne (£19.99) with 80%. At a very reasonable £14.99, Lidl’s Comte de Brismard Champagne scored 80%.
Even the lowest scorer of the 11 champagnes on test, Aldi’s Veuve Monsigny Premier Cru (£15.99) scored a respectable 70%.
Sparkling success
Aldi’s Philippe Michel Crémant du Jura was the cheapest on test (£6.99) and had the second highest score (72%). The other wines that scored 70% or above were: Codorniu Clasico Extra (71%); Jacob’s Creek Sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir (71%); Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Conegliano Prosecco (71%) and Marks & Spencer Sparkling Burgundy (70%).
But our experts called the line-up, nominated by seven supermarkets and including three best-selling brands, as ‘generally lacking excitement. We were looking for a fresh, crisp character with a depth of flavour. A sparkling wine is not just an alternative to champagne and should be a treat.’
Expert tasters
The major supermarkets nominated non-vintage brut champagnes costing £35 or less and these, plus the top three brands were rated by wine experts Charles Metcalfe, Peter McCombie, Kathryn McWhirter, Susy Atkins and Derek Smedley. The panel also tasted ten sparkling wines costing under £15.
Top champagne tips
Champagnes have high acidity – indeed sparkling wines the world over strive to mimic the exciting, sharp freshness of fizz from this cool region of France, where grapes sometimes struggle to ripen. But some champagnes are more acidic than others, and, over lengthy events, champagnes at the sharper end can needle the stomach.
That’s why our panel highlighted some gentler ones as better for drinks parties, such as the Co-operative Les Pionniers Champagne (£17.99), Waitrose Brut Champagne (£19.99), M&S St Gall Premier Cru (£26), Sainsbury’s Blanc de Blancs Champagne (£20.99), and Tesco Finest Premier Cru (£19.99).
Acidity also features when it comes to matching champagne with food, as does hidden sweetness. Producers add sugar syrup to champagne to balance its acidity, but you don’t really notice – just as you perceive the sharpness of lemon juice less when it’s cut with honey.
Champagnes go better with foods that themselves have high acidity (sharp sauces dressed salads) and sweetness (ratatouille, for example, with its natural vegetable sweetness and acidity).
They go well with fish and seafood, smoked salmon and cold-smoked trout, and some sharp cheeses, such as Chaource or Lancashire.
But brut champagnes are a flop with desserts or chocolates. Alongside something sweeter, a brut champagne tastes dull and flat.
A final word on popping the cork. Behind that cork is something approximating to the pressure within the tyre of a London bus. In the thrill of removing the foil and wire and struggling to release the bubbly, don’t forget – keep your thumb firmly over that frisky cork.
- You can share your tips on buying budget Champagne and the best way to enjoy a mince pie at Which? Conversation.
- Check out our top Christmas recycling tips
- Home baking enthusiast? See our video guide to choosing and using a food processor
