£25 Supermarket Champagne Named 2024’s Best Christmas Fizz

Supermarket own-label champagne is often snubbed by oenophiles, yet Tesco’s Finest has beaten luxury house Moët & Chandon in a festive blind tasting test.

Revealed: The Best Affordable Champagne For Christmas

Consumer group Which? asked all the big British supermarkets to choose a non-vintage champagne costing up to £50, inviting a panel of wine experts to blind-taste and rate each sample.

The Tesco Finest premier cru brut champagne, on sale for just £25, was the most highly rated of all with a score of 87 percent, praised by the judges for its ‘nutty aroma and fresh, fruity flavours’. It was victorious over Moët & Chandon’s Brut Imperial, which scored 77 percent, despite being almost twice as expensive at £44 a bottle.

Aldi’s £22 Veuve Monsigny champagne also impressed the panel, scoring 80 percent, described as having an ‘aroma of crunchy green apples with a suggestion of pecans, spice and butterscotch’. 

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Waitrose’s brut NV champagne received the same score as Aldi’s fizz, with the judges hailing its ‘pleasing peach, pear and apple flavours, and a superb nut and winter spice taste’. The panel awarded the Tesco, Aldi and Waitrose bottles ‘Best Buy’ status.

The test also included cheaper alternatives to champagne, such as Lidl’s Prosecco Superiore Valdobbiadene, which was also a hit with the tasters. They described it as an ‘excellent alternative to champagne, and perfect for Christmas parties’.

The judges did not know which products they were trying, and the order in which they tasted each bottle was rotated in order to lower the risk of bias.

Natalie Hitchins, Which? Home Products and Services Editor, said: ‘Millions of people like to toast the festive season with some fizz, and our panel found affordable and delicious options that were dramatically cheaper than alternatives from the big-name champagne houses.

‘Our taste tests show that you don’t have to spend over the odds for a supermarket champagne or sparkling wine that delivers on quality and value for money, making it the perfect Christmas tipple.’

Find the taste test at which.co.uk