Best champagne: our taste test reveals great supermarket bubbly

We asked a panel of independent wine experts to blind-taste nine supermarket champagnes priced between £18 and £25, alongside fizz from big brand Moët & Chandon.

Our experts uncovered three outstanding Best Buys, as well as a Great Value bottle of bubbly that's sure to be a hit whatever the occasion.

Discover which supermarket bubbles beat pricey branded options, so you can stock up in style.

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Best champagne

Only logged-in Which? members can view our full test results and tasting notes below. If you're not yet a member, you'll see an alphabetically ordered list of the champagnes we tested.

To get instant access to these and all our reviews, join Which? today.

Aldi Veuve Monsigny Premier Cru Brut Champagne

£22 for 75cl, vegetarian and vegan

Aldi’s champagne has impressed our experts in previous years, but what did they think this time round?

Join Which? to unlock our test results and find out where this champagne ranked overall. 

Want to buy without reading our results? Available from Aldi.

Asda Louvel Fontaine Champagne Brut

£18 for 75cl

The cheapest champagne in our taste test – but is it also one of the best?

Join Which? to unlock our test results and find out where this champagne ranked overall. 

Want to buy without reading our results? Available from Asda.

Co-op Les Pionniers NV Champagne

£23 for 75cl, vegetarian and vegan

Is this Co-op champagne the best bubbly to serve at celebrations?

Join Which? to unlock our test results and find out where this wine ranked overall. 

Want to buy without reading our results? Available from Co-op.

Lidl Bissinger & Co Brut Premier Cru

£23 for 75cl

Find out what our panel thought of this supermarket fizz. Is it a party crowd pleaser?

Join Which? to unlock our test results and find out where this champagne ranked overall. 

Want to buy without reading our results? Available in-store from Lidl.

M&S Delacourt Champagne Brut

£24 for 75cl, vegetarian and vegan

Marks and Spencer says its champagne is elegant with creamy bubbles. Did our experts agree?

Join Which? to unlock our test results and find out where this champagne ranked overall. 

Want to buy without reading our results? Available from Ocado.

Moët & Chandon Brut Imperial NV Champagne

£44 for 75cl

At £44 a bottle, Moët & Chandon is almost twice the price of others in our test. But is it worth paying more for this big brand?

Join Which? to unlock our test results and find out where this champagne ranked overall. 

Want to buy without reading our results? Available from Tesco.

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Morrisons The Best Etienne Leclair Brut Champagne

£22 for 75cl, vegetarian and vegan

The supermarket says its champagne has an elegant style – did our experts agree?

Join Which? to unlock our test results and find out where this champagne ranked overall. 

Want to buy without reading our results? Available from Morrisons.

Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Brut NV Champagne

£22 for 75cl, vegetarian and vegan

This champagne is aged for three years in cool wine cellars in Reims, but did it impress our panel?

Join Which? to unlock our test results and find out where this champagne ranked overall. 

Want to buy without reading our results? Available from Sainsbury's.

Tesco Finest Premier Cru Brut Champagne

£25 for 75cl, vegetarian and vegan

Is this Tesco champagne, part of its Finest range, the bottle to buy for a celebration?

Join Which? to unlock our test results and find out where this champagne ranked overall. 

Want to buy without reading our results? Available from Tesco.

Waitrose Brut NV Champagne

£25 for 75cl, vegetarian and vegan

Waitrose says its bubbly is from one of Champagne’s top producers, but was it a hit with our experts?

Join Which? to unlock our test results and find out where this champagne ranked overall. 

Want to buy without reading our results? Available from Waitrose.

Price and availability checked January 2025.

Best sparkling wine – our expert taste test reveals the best budget-friendly fizz, including top cheap picks for crémant, cava and prosecco

The best way to chill champagne 

Fail to chill your champagne properly and you'll end up with fizz flying everywhere. Our experts warn that a warm bottle is a recipe for an explosive opening.

Follow our tips for chilling your champagne to serve it at the right temperature and you'll be rewarded with the best of the flavour – and your bubbly won't end up all over the floor.

• Plan ahead Put your champagne in the fridge for at least two hours before you plan to serve it. If you’re chilling lots of bottles at once, or have a very full fridge, you’ll need longer. 
• Chill with ice and water If your fridge is overflowing, chill the bottle in a container filled with ice and water – this works better than ice alone. 
• Use your freezer as a backup If you forget to chill your bottle in advance, you can pop it into the freezer for 20 minutes as a last resort. Just remember to set a timer.
• Don’t serve it straight from the fridge Unless you prefer your champagne really cold, take the bottle out of the fridge 10 minutes before serving – the taste and aroma will be stunted if it's too cold.

When opening a bottle of champagne, unwrap the foil cap that protects the cork and carefully unscrew the wire restrainer while keeping your thumb over the top of the cork. 

Slip the wire off and place your thumb back on the cork, then tilt the bottle slightly. Use one hand to keep hold of the cork and turn the base of the bottle with your other hand. Continue to do this and the cork will easily – and safely – pop off. Make sure you're pointing it away from your face (and anyone else's) at all times.

Best Buy food and drink – we reveal the best value and tastiest supermarket picks from our blind-taste tests

Does champagne get better with age? How to store it properly

How long your champagne will last for depends on the style. 

Non-vintage champagne can last unopened for three to four years, while vintage champagne (from a single year's harvest) can be kept for as long as 10 years. Some people prefer to store it for a while before opening to allow it to age. 

Typically, champagne improves with a little extra ageing, unlike other sparkling wine such as prosecco. To prevent your champagne ageing too quickly, our experts recommend storing bottles standing up in a dark place with a cool, constant temperature.

Once opened, it's best to drink champagne within three to five days. After this, it might lose its fizz. You may have heard that a wad of kitchen paper or a teaspoon in the bottle can help to retain bubbles but, according to our experts, neither of these methods is particularly effective. 

If you often end up with a half-finished bottle, it's worth investing in a proper sparkling wine preserver to help your champagne last longer after it's been opened. These start from around £4.50, with simple stoppers designed for fizz available at supermarkets and other retailers such as Amazon and Waitrose.

Need a special fridge to store your drinks? Check out the best wine coolers and wine fridges

Best food to have with champagne

We asked our experts for their tips for what food goes best with champagne:

• Serve with spice Fizz accentuates chilli, so a glass of champagne pairs well with hot, spicy dishes. 
• Pair with vegetarian food Champagne tends to work better with vegetarian dishes, as opposed to heavier meat options.
• Consider sweetness Dry champagne is easier to match with food. Sweeter wine such as prosecco is best served without food.
• Enjoy with cheese Champagne pairs well with most types of cheese, particularly creamier cheeses. Champagne and comté is a classic pairing.
• Smoked salmon The popular pairing of champagne with smoked salmon might be influenced more by status than taste, as historically both were considered expensive luxuries. Our experts said the champagne acts like a squeeze of lemon, providing acidity to cut through the richness of the salmon. As long as you choose a dry champagne, it's not a bad match.

Our experts also pointed out that it works well as a starting point for celebrations and parties, without necessarily being served alongside food, before you move on to mellower options with your meal.

Best gins - see the top-rated premium gins, including one that outclassed all rivals, and the top Asian-style gins that impressed our experts in a blind taste test

How to get champagne on the cheap

Our experts advised that stocking up on good champagne is worthwhile, as it gets better with age and can be kept for a number of years. 

They’re fans of a multibuy deal, so take advantage of offers on the fizz you like. Most major supermarkets periodically do a 'buy three / six bottles get 25% off' offer, usually in the run-up to bank holidays and seasonal occasions, so keep an eye out for these. 

We spotted variations of this deal at Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Tesco, Sainsburys and Waitrose in the run up to Christmas, and reckon they'll be back for Valentine's Day.

If you need more inspiration on what to stock up on when there's a multibuy offer, check out our pick of the best red wines

Vintage vs non-vintage champagne: what’s the difference?

Have you spotted the abbreviation NV on a bottle of champagne, but not sure what it means? 

NV stands for non-vintage champagne. It's essentially a 'house' blend made using grapes harvested in different years to an established overall taste profile. 

To make quality fizz, producers try to balance the quality and style of non-vintage champagne over years to make the difference as small as possible. 

Making non-vintage champagne is considered a highly skilled art of blending. It means that if you buy a particular brand or product, you know roughly what to expect taste-wise.

That's great for when you want a consistently delicious drink. Our experts were impressed by some of the supermarket offerings in this area, which they saw as 'safe' choices – especially if you're entertaining.

Vintage champagne, on the other hand, is made using grapes harvested from a single year, which will be displayed on the label.

Vintage champagne tends to be pricier, as the flavour will represent the characteristics of that particular year's harvest and is more unique. This means it's better for savouring in a smaller gathering than serving en masse.

Psst! We've reviewed the Best wine clubs - check out our guide to see how the big names did

How we test champagne

Our panel of four independent wine experts blind-tasted 10 champagnes in September 2024. We asked each supermarket to nominate a non-vintage champagne costing up to £50 (excluding special offers).

When tasting the champagne, our experts were looking for a fresh, fruity aroma with some savoury richness, and a fruity taste with good acidity. The age of the champagne matters, too. Younger champagne should have a good fresh and fruity taste, while older ones may shine with toasty, savoury character.

Our expert tasting panel included:

• Sam Caporn MW – Master of Wine, consultant, speaker, writer and co-chair of the International Wine Challenge (IWC)
• Susie Barrie MW – Master of Wine, consultant, broadcaster, podcaster (Wine Blast), writer and co-chair of the WineGB Awards
• Magnavai Janjo – Founder of wine importer and consultancy MJ Wine Cellars
• Helen McGinn – Author, drinks writer, TV presenter and co-chair of the International Wine Challenge (IWC).

We buy all the products we test. If any aren't yet available in the shops, we'll buy direct from the supermarket, but we always pay for test samples in order maintain our independence.

Our champagne taste test was conducted 'blind', meaning the panellists didn’t know which champagne they were trying. 

Each expert tried the champagnes in a different order to avoid any bias, and after all of them had been tasted, the panel agreed on a score for each bottle and which ones deserved to be Best Buys and Great Value. Only then did we reveal which bottle was which.

Why you can trust us: at Which? we're free from manufacturer and retailer influence. Find out more about our impartiality and how your support helps us to stay editorially independent.

How to recycle champagne bottles

Glass bottles can usually go in your household recycling bin. If your council doesn’t accept them, you can take them to a local bottle bank.

The recycling process can vary depending on where you live, so check with your local area if bottles require rinsing first and whether metal screw caps should be replaced or recycled separately.

Natural corks can’t go in your recycling bin. You can recycle them through Recorked UK – either by posting them or dropping them off at your nearest collection point.

Synthetic corks, which are made of plastic, can’t be recycled. They should be disposed of in your general waste bin.

Please drink responsibly. See Drinkaware for information and advice.