Most people taste champagne by looking at the label. So, to them, supermarket own-label exists to be considered inferior and Moet ( you do pronounce the "t") et Chandon is solid but uninspiring, while Veuve Clicquot (yellow label) tastes more refined. This is because people generally believe that there is a sliding scale according to which all champagnes taste good and bad in the same way, with position on the scale dictated by brand and marketing.
This is madness. Some champagnes are rich and deep, like freshly baked brioche. Others are heady and unctuous and narcotic, like a vase of dark-stamened lilies, or church incense. Others, even when claiming to be dry, have a meadowy sweetness. Others are clean and fresh and bracing and whip you into shape like a blast of icy mid-Channel sea air.
If you are to choose a good champagne you need to find out what it is you like - and think about when you'll be drinking it. Here are five (well, four and a sparkling wine) rather different examples I tasted with friends this week.
Laurent Perrier 1995 (Majestic, £29.99) had a stirring of the depth you find in a vintage champagne to buttress its lemony brightness. Characterised by freshness, it had a touch too much acidity for my taste but it had its fans among other tasters.
Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV (Tesco/Majestic, £24.99) is a confirmed favourite. The flavour is luxurious and honeyed. This is absolutely not a drink for glugging away during two-hour drinks parties. It is a glass or two in front of the fire before dinner, dressed up in all your finery kind of a drink.
One that might work for, say, a summer party is Avery's of Bristol Special Cuvee (£16.95; on offer until 14 December at £13.95 from Avery's - 01275 811 112). Avery's has been buying this champagne from Boizel, in Epernay, for more than 30 years. It has a polleny sweetness that we thought would work especially well if it was drunk sitting on a lawn on a warm summer afternoon. I can easily imagine drinking too much of it.
Nyetimber Classic Cuvee 1996, the wild card in our set because it is made in Sussex, has had very good press. Perhaps our expectations were too high, and so we were disappointed. It had quite a high, ripe smell and would do better if served as a curiosity. Alongside real champagnes it was unconvincing.
With all five glasses in front of me, I found myself returning to the Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve NV, mis en cave 1998 (Tesco/Waitrose, £23.49). Something about the way it smelt really pressed my champagne button and gave me that tinselly, excitable "I'm drinking champagne!" feeling. I was anxious that there was a slight metallic aftertaste, but the way around this was simply to drink so fast it never got a chance to kick in. Delicious.
