Spec me Some Good Champagne

I've had 'regular' Bollinger and liked it.
Budget wise, I'd rather buy the cheaper one but if the RD is considered a much nicer one I would stretch to it.

I know a lot is down to personal taste etc, but if one is considered not much better than regular for instance?
 
Out of the ones on there, I'd probably take the 98 Krug over the 96 Boll, but hey I've not tried the Boll of that year and 96 is supposed to be, having just read this, one of the best vintages of the century, followed by 1990, so you know...

I'd go for the 96 on reading about that! Worth a shot...
 
Beer > Champagne. ;)

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Good champagne glasses there Quicklink :)

Looking from a bit of help from people now. Last year we had a champagne themed wedding where each table was named after a different bottle. As an anniversary present I thought I’d buy a bottle of each champagne (great excuse eh!)

I’m sure last year we picked up a lot of the bottles discounted from various supermarkets and I’m hoping I can do the same this year to.

The list I need is

Moet & Chandon
Taittinger
Bollinger
Gosset
Nicholas Feuillante
Gremillet
Jaquart
Lanson
Veuve Clique
Heidsieck Blue Top

So far I’ve picked up the Lanson (£16) and the Moet (£26) in Tesco.

Tesco have currently got Heidsieck for £15 and Taittinger for £26 which I don’t think I’ll be able to get any cheaper anywhere else.

The Gremillet was a house champagne in a local wine merchants and I’ve not seen it anywhere else so I think I’ll have to go back there to pick it up.

Can people keep their eye out and let me know if they see any deals on any of the others? I know Nicholas Feullante is usually cheap in various places so should be too tricky. Just not sure about the others.
 
taB said:
Not surprised it was sharp, 2005 is still so young! Feuillatte isn't a house that I have got on terribly well with. The NV tends to be the standard on offer brand in a lot of places and while passable doesn't offer any complexity.

On a general note, I think my difficulty with champagne is that for the prices involved for the decent ones I would rather be buying still wine which gives me much more enjoyment. Why spend £70 on a prestige cuvée when you can be getting a Domaine Leflaive 1er Cru for example? Although a lot would argue, why spend £70 on a bottle of booze at all :). My drinking fizz when needed is aged NV from a few decent houses (<£20 paid per bottle) and I've got a magnum of rather decent stuff (worth >£500) that I seem unable to find an occasion to drink and may end up selling but nothing in between.
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I call shenanigans. You're not getting any 1er Cru from Domaine Leflaive for that cheap (I presume you're talking about Montrachet...). But if you do get your hands on some it's lovely stuff!

But on topic I'd check out Jacquesson. Even the Berry's own stuff is pretty good (and cheap) too
 
Marvt74 said:
Good champagne glasses there Quicklink :)

Looking from a bit of help from people now. Last year we had a champagne themed wedding where each table was named after a different bottle. As an anniversary present I thought I’d buy a bottle of each champagne (great excuse eh!)

I’m sure last year we picked up a lot of the bottles discounted from various supermarkets and I’m hoping I can do the same this year to.

The list I need is

Moet & Chandon
Taittinger
Bollinger
Gosset
Nicholas Feuillante
Gremillet
Jaquart
Lanson
Veuve Clique
Heidsieck Blue Top

So far I’ve picked up the Lanson (£16) and the Moet (£26) in Tesco.

Tesco have currently got Heidsieck for £15 and Taittinger for £26 which I don’t think I’ll be able to get any cheaper anywhere else.

The Gremillet was a house champagne in a local wine merchants and I’ve not seen it anywhere else so I think I’ll have to go back there to pick it up.

Can people keep their eye out and let me know if they see any deals on any of the others? I know Nicholas Feullante is usually cheap in various places so should be too tricky. Just not sure about the others.
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My input is useless here, being in a different place, but I have to say, annoyingly, that we're doing that next August for our wedding lol different bottles, but we're evidently just as sad :p
 
Hahaha, one thing to be careful with is that if you want the guests at that table to drink the champagne then prepare to be hit with a big corkage fee at your venue! Luckily when I first asked they told me the wine amount and charged us half what they normally would (champagne had a higher corkage fee than wine)

Heres the table plan we used (i ammended some of the images so they don't actually relate to the correct champagne in some instances)

Its currently hanging about out fireplace :)

WDd55.jpg

It was hard having so many bottles in the cupboard and not drinking them.
 
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I'll struggle I think! I struggle enough now as it is!

Luckily, we have no corkage at our place. We pay an extra 800 euros and get the full run of the place until morning, with whatever drinks we want to bring in, which is great!

Nice table plan, I'm in charge of all the wedding stationary, which I really need to get on with to be fair. Women are useless at wedding planning, I tell you!
 
Looking forward to seeing what you select QuickLink, when the invite arrives. ;)

Liking champagne/cheese themed tables. I'd push for a whisky theme but I imagine it'd be vetoed!
 
Also don't forget your champagne sabre for opening for the toast ;)

Funny story with that was that we had a bottle of Gosset on our table and my wife wouldn't let me open that with a sword incase i ruined it so i bought a cheap bottle of Tsarine (very weird bottle)

In my slightly drunken/nervous way i ended up opening the Gosset with the sword and it worked perfectly (although i was very close to whacking the maitre d in the face) but then i tried later on the Tsarine and really struggled. Could've been embarrassing had i tried it on that for the toast!
 
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QuickLink said:
I'll struggle I think! I struggle enough now as it is!

Luckily, we have no corkage at our place. We pay an extra 800 euros and get the full run of the place until morning, with whatever drinks we want to bring in, which is great!

Nice table plan, I'm in charge of all the wedding stationary, which I really need to get on with to be fair. Women are useless at wedding planning, I tell you!
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This is actually the wrong quote (sorry!) but you're having cheese themes? That's awesome by the way....

Reason I now post this is because I was concerned you'd be pairing cheese with some of the champagne and that's a real game changer. If so, I (as I'm sure some other posters in here) could help you with the pairings. Champagne and cheese does work (for me anyway) but you need to be careful with the pairing.

If I ever find someone who likes cheese and wine as much as me I'm definitely robbing your table plan idea for the wedding!
 
Well i've bought most of mine now except the Heidsieck which Asda have for only £15 so will get that soon enough.

Also ended up buying a bottle of Ruinart Blanc de Blanc which i've always fancied trying. But i think the prize for most impressive bottle goes to this Vranken.

rNikl.jpg

I bought a bottle back in February for Valentines day and picked up the last one the local shop had in stock. Not much info of it online other than it seem to be linked to the Pommery house. The standard Vranken is alright but i'm struggling to find much info out on this version.
 
Marvt74 said:
Well i've bought most of mine now except the Heidsieck which Asda have for only £15 so will get that soon enough.

Also ended up buying a bottle of Ruinart Blanc de Blanc which i've always fancied trying. But i think the prize for most impressive bottle goes to this Vranken.

http://i.imgur.com/rNikl.jpg[/IMG

I bought a bottle back in February for Valentines day and picked up the last one the local shop had in stock. Not much info of it online other than it seem to be linked to the Pommery house. The standard Vranken is alright but i'm struggling to find much info out on this version.[/QUOTE]

Not something I've come across but some info on Cellartracker: [url]http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=662860[/url]

It's owned by Pommery so if you can navigate their **** website there's an info page for it. They recommend having it with "meat dishes served with sauce" which seems a bit vague to me!
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Voltar said:
I call shenanigans. You're not getting any 1er Cru from Domaine Leflaive for that cheap (I presume you're talking about Montrachet...). But if you do get your hands on some it's lovely stuff!

But on topic I'd check out Jacquesson. Even the Berry's own stuff is pretty good (and cheap) too
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Hah, missed this. I can and you could too :)

You can get 1er Cru wine from Domaine Leflaive for around £70. The Meursault 1er (Sous dos d'Ane) fits in this price bracket and of the Puligny-Montrachets the Clavoillon does also (£595/12 in bond release price for 2010 so £61.78 a bottle taxes paid). Personally I really like the style of Clavoillon.

Pucelles, Folatières and Combettes (1er Cru) are all a bit more expensive at around £100-£120 a bottle. Then you get into the Grand Crus but they're another step forward on price.

Personally though I tend to buy the Bougogne Blanc...
 
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