We tried cheap champagne from Aldi, Tesco, Lidl, Asda, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Waitrose – the winner is a bargain buy

For those wanting to put a bit of fizz into celebrations over the festive period, a bottle of champagne is often on the shopping list. But if you’re looking at buying one of the posh legacy champagne brands you are looking at paying anything from £40 up to £200 or more for your fizz.

However, most supermarkets now do their own brand champagnes which means you can get a decent bottle of the bubbly stuff for less than half the price of your Moets, Mumm or Dom Perignons.

Thre’s a huge array of bottles on sale right now, so we asked all the big supermarkets for their cheapest own-brand, or own-produced champagne. These are the bottles which form the taste test – although it’s worth pointing out that some supermarkets offered up a more premium bottle as they said these were the cheapest own brand they had available.

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So to make things completely unbiased, I assembled a panel of regular fizz drinkers and we tasted all the bottles in a blind taste test. All bottles were covered and numbered for the first round of testing.

Once the top four had been established, we tried these again to ensure we could adequately compare the best of the best and to come up with our eventual winner. It was only then that the maker of each bottle was revealed to the panel of tasters.

It’s probably worth noting that we felt that all the bottles tested here were all drinkable – and we would not be unhappy if any were served to us at a festive party. But in the taste test there were definitely some that we felt we’d prefer to drink more of than others.

Here’s what we thought on all the bottles we tried, from Aldi, Tesco, Lidl, M&S, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Morrison’s.

Asda Louvel Fontaine – £9.99 (on offer down from £18)

This one immediately struck us with its “ripe” fragrance, that some felt was “a bit cheesy”. It made it universally unappealing with our tasting panel.

Rating: 4/10

Lidl Comte de Sennaval – £13.99

This one fared no better on the smell – with the panel remarking on the very strong fragrance and sour taste once in the mouth. But it did also divide opinions this one as two member of the panel enjoyed it, while the other two really, reatlly hated it.

Rating: 4/10

Aldi Monsigny – £14.99

This one had a fairly nutty taste, but was still fairly drinkable. Indeed one member of the panel summed it up that “If I had it in a bar I’d be OK with it.”

Rating: 5/10

Waitrose Brut NV champagne – £24.99

The bubbles fell flat quite quickly on this one, and the taste literally fell flat for the panel. It was described as “a bit acid” by one, although others on the panel said it was “an easy drinker”.

Rating: 5/10

Marks & Spencer Louis Vertay – £20

This one was an immediate hit thanks to its biscuity fragrance, and slightly pinky tinge of the wine. The flavour was described as “crisp and apple-like”.

The panel were in agreement that this one would be a “great party champagne” as it had a universal appeal.

Rating: 7/10

Sainsburys Blanc des Noirs – £22 with Nectar Card (£25 without)

Another hit with the panel – with immediate agreement of “That’s really nice” on the first sip. It was described as having a “slightly nougat taste” and being “a very palatable drink”.

If you’re looking to gift a bottle, this one we also agreed had the best looking label of the lot – a lovely black and gold design that looked very classy.

Rating: 8/10

Morrisons The Best Etienne Leclair Premier Cru – £25

This one had a delicious strawberries and cream flavour to it that met with approval from the panel. It was described as “very fresh” and “very enjoyable.”

Rating: 8/10

Tesco Premier Cru champagne – £20 with Clubcard (£25 without)

This one immediately wowed the panel with its sweet “smell of Hobnobs” and a dancing oaty fizz on the tongue.

Verdicts included: “It tastes like a classic brut champagne” and “It’s just so much better than the others”.

Rating: 9/10

The verdict

So it was a pretty unanimous decision in the end – and that was that the Tesco The Finest Premier Cru. It scored the highest marks and was all four panel members’ favourite bottle.

And everyone was even more impressed when the price was revealed – because at £20 (with the Tesco Clubcard) it’s actually one of the cheapest of the lot.

It tasted so good that we all basically headed down to Tesco after the taste test and bought ourselves some more bottles of it to serve up over the Christmas holidays.

While price isn’t always an indicator of taste, it was interesting that the two cheapest bottles we tried, from Asda and Lidl, did languish at the bottom of the pile on our tastings. It might suggest you may be better off investing a little more for your fizz if you’re after a finer flavour.

Here’s the full list of scores:

1. Tesco The Finest Premier Cru – 9/10

2. Morrison’s Etienne L’Eclair – 8/10

3. Sainsbury’s Blanc de Noirs – 8/10

4. Marks & Spencer Louis Vertay – 7/10

5. Aldi Monsigny – 5/10

6. Waitrose Brut NV – 5/10

7. Lidl Comte – 4/10

8 – Asda Louvel Fontaine – 4/10

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