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| Jane revealing one of our blind tasted bubblies |
So which bubbly bargains, that Sheila selected, can we
recommend for you? They are presented
below in descending order of preference with scores out of 20 in the order of
John E, Clive, Chris, Jill, Kathryn, Sarah, John S, Sheila, Jane and Andy. All were blind tasted.
Supermarket Blanc de Noirs Champagnes are always the ones to
go for as they represent great value and have a fuller flavour that many of us
appreciate. This was a real cracker and
five of us voted it the best wine of he evening and nobody had it in their
bottom three. Very, very nice with a
beautifully powerful taste. Scores were
16, 17+,14.5, 15.5, 14, 18.5, 12.5, 14.5,11 and 11. If you can afford bubbly around 20 then go
for this one. This wine is made by the excellent Alexandre Bonnet in Les Riceys. Click here to read about les Riceys.
A ladies’ wine with its pretty pink label, it did not
disappoint in the taste department. It
has a really beautiful salmon colour with some almond complexity on the palate
and a good astringency to make it a food wine.
A few didn’t appreciate the aftertaste and although five had it in their
top three wines, another five had it in their bottom three. Scores were 15.25, 16, 9, 12, 6, 15, 10, 15,
18 and 10. A pleasant rosé if you can
get it on special offer.
What a cracking bargain this Crémant from Aldi was! Four of our team rated it in their top two
wines of the evening. I thought it
tasted good and slightly different from the Champagnes even though it was made
of Chardonnay one of the three main Champagne grapes. It was not complex and had a pleasant if slightly
rough edge to it. However, at this price
in the UK it was totally amazing.
Scores were 12.25, 17, 13.5, 14, 13, 14, 11, 11, 13 and
11.5. I expect this has totally sold out
as the press quite rightly recommend it.
This was the first wine we tasted and I said at the time
that it was a great way to start and if the wines improve as the evening goes
on then we are in for a great tasting – prophetic words as three of the next
wines were better! This is very pleasant
Champagne made by the Union cooperative from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes
from Premier Cru villages in the Champagne region. It won an IWSC gold in 2012 but we thought it
very pleasant but not that special. Scores were 14, 15, 12.5, 11, 15, 10, 12,
14.5, 10 and 11.5. Amazing value when on
special offer.
This wine is worth buying just for its interesting bottle
shape. A classic branded champagne,
which tastes great but not that special compared to some others we tasted. Our team rated it everything from No.1 to
No.6 so it just shows how tastes vary.
Certainly a great bargain at the price Sheila paid. Scores were 12.5, 15, 13, 14.5, 7, 18, 13,
10, 10 and 10. This is very reliable
brand in a very pretty bottle.
This was the joker I added at the end f the evening to go
with Sheila’s chocolaty dessert. It
worked surprisingly well with the chocolate but this proved to be a wine that
our team either loved or hated – three of our tea had it in their top three but
another three had in in last place. Well
worthy of consideration if you like slightly sweet sparkling wines. This one was very fruity and reminded us of
pineapples. It was not too sweet for
most palates. Scores were 13.5, 16, 12,
15, 14.5, 9, 8, 11, 18 and 11. This is an
interesting dessert wine or an aperitif for those with sweeter palates.
This wine was very distinctively Prosecco with its pear like
taste. Dry but a nice full flavour if a
little innocuous. If you like Prosecco
this is a good one to go for. Scores
were 9.5, 12, 9.5, 9, 9, 13, 11.5, 13, 10 and 9.5. It would appear that our panel don’t really
like Prosecco!
Thus Sheila has bucked the trend where people are buying
less Champagne and more Prosecco because they are seeking value under £10. Our tasting suggests you might be better off
looking for the special offers and Crémants.
Even though we tasted a silver medal and highly rated Prosecco it
finished bottom of our pile. Perhaps
that shows how good all of the wines we tasted were! A big round of applause for Sheila for a
fantastic evening. I don’t think anyone
could have presented us such an interesting selection at that price.
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| Sheila gave us a nice spread of food |
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| Our host - Sheila |
As usual, thanks to Clive for most of the photos
accompanying this blog. Especial thanks
to Sheila for putting on a great evening.
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| Counting the bubbles |
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| How many glasses have I had? |
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| How much did that cost? |
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| Clive at work on the photos |
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