Praise for Supermarket Bubbly

Mon, 06 Nov 2006
 
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According to a new survey by food critic Egon Ronay, supermarkets own brand champagne are as good or better than many of the best-known brands.

Three bottles of bubbly were singled out for praise after Mr Ronay tasted over 30 bottles in a blind test of supermarket brands . He also singled out the price as a big factor as the bottles are priced between £14 and £18 making them far cheaper than most big name champagnes.

Mr Ronay said that the range and quality was ‘a revelation'. He added, "It would certainly be a mistake to buy the well known brands just because of the name on the label when some of the supermarket champagnes stand up to them very well. Those which were in the first three are as good or better than some of the best."

The results come at a time were supermarkets are becoming dominant forces in different market sectors, and now it seems they have a growing slice of Britain's total champagne market . Independent analysts AC Nielsen's latest figures show that supermarkets took 64 per cent of all money spent on champagne in stores in the year to October 7 2006, compared to 59 per cent in the previous year.

Samples for tasting were provided by Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrison's, Waitrose, M&S, Aldi and Somerfield.

Out of the 30 bottles tested Mr Ronay pointed to M&S’s Champagne de St Gall Premier Cru Brut, Sainsburys Vintage 1999 Blanc de Blancs Brut and Sainsbury's Blanc de Noirs Brut as his favourites.

According to the Champagne Information Bureau, Britain leads the way as the world's largest importer of champagne ahead of the US and Germany . Our champagne consumption is second only to that of France .

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