Champagne?

wez130

wez130

wez130

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Matakana New Zealand
Right, i am not a wine lover, but i want a bottle of champagne to celebrate the birth of my son in Nov/Dec.

I've only ever tried Lanson Black Label which i thought was alright tbh, but there are so many out there for around £25-£35 a bottle, minus Dom perignon and Krug which were £85-£90 respectively.

Being a non-wine drinker, what would you recommend.

A few examples of the top of my head...

Lanson, tattinger, Bollinger, Heidsieck, Veuve clicquot, Moet & Chandon.
Feel free to add your own choices.
 
I hate Champagne, but the missus will go for the Bollinger every time. When i watch the MTV Cribs, everyone seems to have a bottle of the Cristal and makes sure that everyone knows it ;)
 
fatiain said:
Don't get Cristal, it's overpriced crap.

I'm a big fan of Moet and Lanson and Veuve Cliquot
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My initial choice was between lanson and veuve, just want a few more choices thrown into the equation :D
 
wez130 said:
Right, i am not a wine lover, but i want a bottle of champagne to celebrate the birth of my son in Nov/Dec.

I've only ever tried Lanson Black Label which i thought was alright tbh, but there are so many out there for around £25-£35 a bottle, minus Dom perignon and Krug which were £85-£90 respectively.

Being a non-wine drinker, what would you recommend.

A few examples of the top of my head...

Lanson, tattinger, Bollinger, Heidsieck, Veuve clicquot, Moet & Chandon.
Feel free to add your own choices.
Click to expand...

If you're not an expert then you might as well go for an easy drinking 20 quid bottle which you'll enjoy just as much as a 100 quid bottle.

Spend the excess on a treat for the mother and/or baby. Most supermarket own labels are actually very drinkable.
 
For real champagne I'd go with Mumm Cordon Rouge, emminently quaffable and only £25 or so a bottle. Alternatively Frixinet Cordon Negro is a cracking buy, it's not champagne, rather a Spanish sparkling white but tastes very much the same. At £6 a bottle it's an absolute steal and great for something to keep in the fridge just in case.
 
Depends on your own personal taste. For instance I enjoy a bottle of Moet*, however it's too tart for some and I've read people on here **** it off and espouse Veuve Clicquot as fantastic. The amount and type of each grape used in each can vary, so the flavour of each brand will be subtly different.

I believe Lanson is fairly heavy on the Chardonnay, so a Veuve would be a closer match than Moet. If you've tried Lanson and liked it, then go with that, otherwise you're only going to be buying for the snob-factor of the label.

To be honest if you're just after a decent sparkling wine, I'd spend some money on sampling some Cava - loads of excellent bottles for under a tenner which are as good as, if not better than, many champagnes.

*although to be fair, I'm a total sparkling-wine whore :P
 
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Borris said:
Harvey Nichols' house shampoo is a good drop - Chateau Medot, iirc.
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Used to get loads of that free from the barmen when I worked there. It's nice with cranberry juice.
 
Yarra Burn Sparkling ................ Australian fizz at about £13 a bottle .... as good if not better than Champers.

Vigin wines do it.
 
[DOD]Asprilla said:
For that budget I'd go for Bollinger 1996 Grand Anee.
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Opps, read it wrong.

Lanson Black or Veuve would be my choice.

I did have a Ridgeview Cuvée Merret Bloomsbury 2003 the other day. Very nice sparking from West Sussex, made with chardonny grapes on a very chalky geology and lots of advice from champagne growers. Highly recommended.
 
Admiral Huddy said:
I was reading somewhere that champaigne is made in a particular way that is actually quite revolting.. but can't find what. Any ideas?
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It is made by the French.

That's disgusting enough in its own right.
 
fatiain said:
Don't get Cristal, it's overpriced crap.

I'm a big fan of Moet and Lanson and Veuve Cliquot
Click to expand...

This man speaketh the truth.

Borris said:
It is made by the French.

That's disgusting enough in its own right.
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LOL. I heard that the bubbles form from impurities on the glass, the more bubbles the dirtier the glass.
 
if you are a non wine drinker ,then the supermarket own brand would do you well, Tesco and M.& S. are quite good.
One bottle that I remember fondly was Pol Roger, Churchill used to have a bottle for breakfast with his cigar in the mornings. He loved the stuff so much he maned his race horse after it, and when he dies the company changed the label to incorporate a black band
 
Buying champagne is easy if you know the secrets of the labels.

Look carefully on the label for a code.

NM - this is the good stuff. If it's under £20, it's worth buying. If it's under £10, buy lots. It's not worth spending more than £20 on champagne, IMO. For the vast majority of people, the difference in quality is undetectable.

MA - this is your typical stuff and is not worth buying unless it's under £15

You may sometimes see RM or CM but these are more rare outside France (where they keep all the best stuff!)

No code - avoid.


Now while this is a very general guide, it holds true most of the time.
 
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