The F&F Sparkling Red from Aldi is pretty good.
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if anyone wants something fizzy and dry, and a little bit different - see if you can find some Extra Dry Sekt. German sparkling reisling
or some Crémant D’Alsace Brut Extra, something like
This is excellent.
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Pedant mode maybe, but English Champagne doesn’t exist…
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Laurent Perrier Rose has been our go to pick forever for a pink fizz, but had this recently and it was also very fine
I think they both contain chardonnay
I have rather liked a few “blanc de noir” types, they dont contain chardonnay, only pinot noir and pinot meunier
English wise, if you prefer less yeast and more of a Prosecco type profile, then this is good:
Otherwise, for a classical champagne profile this is blanc de noir is amazing matches very well with most food especially seafood:
If you want a thinking man’s champagne then this is amazing, treat it like a nice whiskey. It has a brilliant lingering finish that keeps developing:
(If you can find a 2014 then snap it up)
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Just realised I had some of this in the back of the cupboard, which you’re welcome to give her.
Oh, on second thoughts…
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It matures well
May let it reach teenage-hood and then ebay.
Could be my pension.
Only tried champagne a few times.
Thought it was awful.
Hope this helps the thread bumble along.
we thought it was adequate. The best is the extra mature (XO?)
Nice price atm from :
I genuinely enjoy Champagne as a tipple, but remain eternally baffled by all the overly-yeasty wines that exist. Decades ago it was generally regarded as a sign of second-rate, old-fashioned winemaking to take the subtle, delicate flavours of grapes grown (mostly) on northerly, chalk soils and make them taste like brioche soup, and they were only drunk locally. But the ever-present quest for something different and its attendant snob cachet seems to have embraced the minor makers and their uneven products for years now, so I guess the only worthwhile rule is the eternal one: drink for pleasure, and not to impress.
For what incredibly little it’s worth - my taste is at the opposite end of the pole, where I find the best intersection of pleasure and price is the Veuve Clicquot of Ponsardin’s non-vintage (oh the irony) offer. It’s typical of the large-scale mainly chalk-grown Reims wines, but VCP also blend-in the essential Marne Valley stuff - and that’s the key to a really good Champagne.
The north side of the Marne Valley has a unique geology (Lutetian marls and limestones), yielding a unique soil type - and there is genuinely nowhere else in the entire World that has it. That soil type is so important to producing the best Champagne, that years ago (and perhaps now, but the pre-Millenium expansion has obscured the spots I knew…), there were small patches on the optimum positions where each single row of vines was owned by a different house and had a label proudly proclaiming it! It imparts the unique, subtle aromas characteristic of good Champagne which no other sparkling wine has, and certainly not the enjoyable-but-overpriced British stuff.
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