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Liverpool Echo

Entertainment

Dianne Bourne & Kate Lally

We compared Aldi champagne with Moet and M&S and there was a clear winner

Aldi Moet Champagne (Geopolitical Entity) Dianne Bourne Lidl

Ahead of New Year celebrations, some of us may be looking at buying a bottle or two of champagne.

While largely seen as an expensive treat, there is actually a decent range of cheaper French fizzes on offer this year at budget supermarkets. While well-known "posh" brands of champagne will set you back upwards of around £30 for a 75cl bottle, many large retailers offer own-brand versions for much less.

This year, as you may expect, Aldi and Lidl offer the cheapest versions.

Only wines made in the Champagne region of France are allowed to call themselves "champagne". So you know you're getting the real deal if a bottle bears that name on the neck or label.

But for fizz fans, is there much of a difference on taste between the cheapest champers and pricier alternatives? To give it a test, MEN reporter Dianne Bourne compared two of the cheapest champagnes for sale in supermarkets right now, with perhaps the most well-known of champagne brands, Moet.

For balance, a mid-range supermarket own brand champagne, from Marks and Spencer, was also added in. Dianne got three friends to help her out with a blind taste test of all four. The group then reviewed the bottles on their fizziness, taste, and aesthetic, as well as value for money.

Aldi - Nicolas de Montbart - £9.99 (down from £13.99)

Dianne said: "As soon as we popped this one we could smell the lovely fizzy fragrance, and on first sipping could taste strawberry and cream flavours. This one also stayed fizziest the longest with a pleasing spread of bubbles in the glass.

"The bottle describes it as 'easy drinking' and it certainly is that with a smooth and sweet flavour. Looking at the bottle, this one also looked pretty classy too we all felt."

Lidl - A Carpentier - £13.99

"Oh dear, this one lost its fizz very quickly on pouring, and I'm afraid the taste fell flat with all of us testers too. It had the biggest 'pop' when we took out the cork and very large bubbles on the first pour, but they evaporated pretty quick. On the taste front it was very pear-like, and there was no getting away from that lack of fizz.

"Very disappointing. The style of the bottle also didn't impress, not helped by the fact that the label also did not survive well from the ice bucket treatment sadly."

M&S - Louis Vertay - £18

"This one fizzed really nicely and had a really interesting creamy taste to it. On the label it described its flavour as 'red apple and brioche'. I totally got the brioche but didn't find it fruity at all.

"It held its fizz well, and one of my friends had this down as her favourite. The bottle itself looked pretty class with extra gold embossing."

Moët - purchased from M&S for £34, down from £39

"This was the easiest bottle to pop, and we all felt made the most 'champagne-y' popping sound, if there is such a thing. You can't knock the bottle either, it has the classic image that screams quality.

"This one had a nicely refined fragrance to it, and on tasting you got the hint of nuttiness that perhaps marked it out as something a bit different from the rest of the fizz we'd been testing. Personally, I found it left a rather round savoury end note in the mouth, and I much preferred the sweeter end note of the Aldi fizz.

"But there's no mistaking this is a great tasting champagne".

Ratings and overall winner

A clear winner for the group was the Aldi bottle, as it "boasted the best fizziness, a quality label, a gorgeous easy drinking style, all while being the cheapest bottle we could find on sale."