Why it's not worth bothering with cheap champagne

This year has been a vintage one for cut price champagne offers. Good for us, the punters? No, not really.

Very few cut price champagnes are worth the money. As a matter of interest we tried a bottle of Nicole d'Aurigny (No score) a champagne that Somerfield is selling for £9.99, more than 50% off. Frankly we'd have done better to buy a cut price bottle of Cava. It was thin and weedy with none of the complexity you have a right to expect from a bottle that originally cost over £20. Think what kind of a still wine you could have got for that.

The best cheap bottle we tried was H. Blin (RATING:***) which costs £15.99 from Oddbins if you're buying a mixed case (£19.99 if you're not). It was elegant and fresh and even at the full price a good deal less than the amount you'd pay for a better known brand such as Laurent Perrier or Taittinger (£31.99 and £33.99 respectively) A better bargain still was a bottle of Philipponnat Royal Reserve (RATING:****) which sells at £22.39 at Oddbins if you buy a mixed case, £27.99 if you don't) which really is the real deal with all the honeyed, toasty richness one expects from champagne.

The moral? If you're not spending more than £15 on fizz buy a less expensive sparkling wine instead. And if you are, be prepared to buy lesser known names and the supermarkets' own brands which tend to be much better quality than the cheap brands.