Aldi Veuve Monsigny Champagne Brut by Philizot at £9.99 has beaten a £130 bottle of Veuve Clicquot in a blind tasting according to today's "Independent". This does not surprise me one bit.
How does a silver medal winning Champagne get to be so cheap? Well, I suspect that Aldi has great buying power and the Champagne is probably being sold as a loss leader. It probably costs almost £10 to produce and retail a bottle of Champagne when you include taxes etc. No doubt Philizot are making a couple of quid on the bottle.
Three cheers for Aldi for selling a prize winning Champagne so cheap and at Christmas.
Philizot is a small company and can probably blend Champagne from different producers just as well, if not better, than the grande marque houses. So it is no surprise that their Champagne beat Veuve Clicqout in a blind tasting - so what? A wine costing £130 pounds cannot taste 13 times better than a wine costing £10 retail. Remember the cost of producing the grande marque wines is very similar to the cost of producing lesser known brand names.
There is so much hype and nonsense surrounding Champagne just like cosmetics and HiFi and fast cars. If it makes you feel better to buy a top name then go ahead. It is my pleasure to find lesser known but excellent wine at a fair price and report it here. I think that I can see through the hype and I am no scrooge.
Good luck to you and enjoy your Aldi prize winning wine for £9.99 including taxes. We have not got an Aldi near our home but if I pass one on the road I am going to get some of this Champagne, if it is still in stock, and drink it and enjoy it and report back.
This is what my blog is all about . It is finding very good wine at a good price. The big names make big profit margins and who can blame them if the public are prepared to pay an elevated price just to be swanky.
The best Champagnes come from the grower producers. That is small domaines that grow their own grapes and make the wine from their very own vines. These wines have regional character and a unique taste. Lookout for RM or Recoltant-Manipulant on the bottle.
Try R Renaudin and Benoit Lahaye; their wines are fairly priced and are of very good to exceptional quality.
http://www.r-renaudin.com/
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=benoit+lahaye+champagne&sa=X&rlz=1C1SKPC_enGB328&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=62CrUrjQFpCShgeYuYHwAw&ved=0CFkQsAQ&biw=1920&bih=988
http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/jsp/product/productDetails.jsp?productId=eprod520008&_requestid=115600
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/christmas-food-and-drink/9721641/Christmas-2013-Is-10-champagne-too-good-to-be-true.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/christmas-for-scrooges-awardwinning-champagne-for-999-whole-cooked-lobsters-for-599-but-how-do-they-manage-to-sell-them-so-cheaply-9001443.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/champagne-put-to-the-test-taking-the-fizz-out-of-bubbly-426379.html
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