OWN BRANDS ARE TOP OF THE POPS
Supermarket champagnes ‘taste best’
NO, you’re not seeing double… two supermarket champagnes have beaten top brands in a taste test.
Waitrose Blanc de Blancs Brut, which costs £25.99 a bottle, and Tesco Finest Premier Cru Champagne, slightly cheaper at £23, were both branded corkers by consumer group Which?
Experts sampled more than a dozen champagnes, ranging in price from £13.99 to £39. Lanson’s £36 Le Black Label Brut was named third best.
Supermarkets Aldi and Sainsbury’s also took fourth and fifth place with their own brands.
The panel said Waitrose’s winning offering had “delicate, toasty notes and ripe fruit aromas”.
And while the experts were “initially surprised” by the Tesco champagne’s “unusual golden colour”, their taste buds were “impressed by the expressive aromas and flavours of brioche, roasted apples and a nutty finish”.
Both bottles of bubbly were rated higher than the most expensive champagne the panel tasted.
Popular brand Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial, among the most expensive at £39 a bottle, received a rating of 68% and came in 11th place.
It was ranked one place below Lidl Carpentier Champagne Brut, which is a whole £25 less and the cheapest on the list at £13.99.
But the two bottles that fell flat with the experts were Lidl’s £14.99 Montaudon Champagne Brut and De Vallois Champagne at £15. The Which? judging panel also tested cheaper alternatives to champagne for this Christmas. Top of this table was Aldi’s Specially Selected Cremant du Jura 2019, which costs £8.99 a bottle and got a score of 74%. Natalie Hitchins, home products and services editor at Which? said: “Our taste tests prove that supermarket champagnes can more than hold their own against the famous champagne houses. “They are delivering excellent quality champagne and great value for money.”