Toasting the best of the New Year champagnes

Dec 26 2010 by Richard McComb, Sunday Mercury

YOU can’t beat a glass of fizz to see in the New Year and while there are plenty of sparklers on the market, it’s hard to beat classic Champagne for a celebratory toast.

The liquid gold of Northern France may attract a price premium but you don’t have to break the bank to find some sensational value special occasion wines.

The buying power of the big retailers means they can source extremely good Champagnes, which are branded through their own labels. The quality is generally high and there are some real gems.

Consumers have a huge choice at this time of year, the UK remaining the biggest export market for Champers. Much of it is seasonally discounted to lure in party-goers so do your research well and you can bag some bargains.

I led an enthusiastic panel of judges to put seven supermarket Champagnes to the test, both vintage and premier cru varieties. We tried bottles from Waitrose, M&S, Tesco, Asda, Aldi, Morrisons and the Co-op. The findings are very much those of Mr and Mrs Average.

The sparklers varied dramatically in price, from £14.99 at Aldi to £24.99 at Tesco for a 2004 vintage

So do you get what you pay for? Well, no.

On the whole, our panel favoured the bargain-basement varieties and there appeared to be little benefit in taking price as a guide to quality.