Veuve Clicquot and Perrier Jouët both do a rose, which should be good if their NV whites are anything to go by. Can’t recall trying either but like both the whites.

Veuve is a favourite but if you’re going to spend lots, then Dom Perignon. Better value comes from claret however and is more memorable.

Veuve FTW.

However, caspian’s point of view is very valid. Best big drinky sessions ever were on pints of Shambles – Double vodka, redbull, topped up to a pint with champers (if someone else is paying) or Strongbow (if you are or if they’re from Yorkshire).

I couldn’t discern the difference between the two – and I’m normally reet classy.

If you are going to do champagne cocktails even if it’s just a kid royale I would not use branded champagne. For my daughters wedding she wanted champagne cocktails so we used blanc de blanc at €4.50 bottle from French supermarket. If you get a dry style crement (eg Burgandy or Alsace) that works too and similar price.

For branded champagne I like Laurent Perrier, I used to buy Ayala as it was £15 a bottle and used as house champagne at many top restaurants but it’s been “discovered now” so not so cheap.

As an aside we in the UK drink more champagne than do any other nation even the French

when I live in Canterbury we where twined with Reims
This was considered the dog ‘doo dars’

Marketing. Most of the small champagne houses keep the best of their crop for themselves and sell the rest to the likes of Moët. We did a mini tour of Champagne last year, looking for stuff for our wedding, was brilliant fun, great way to spend a long weekend if you like fizzy stuff. Just go door to door trying each of their wares.

Moët is nice, but vastly overpriced.

Since there’s a lot of good advice, does anyone have any alternatives to Laurent Perrier Rosé? Something enjoyed equally by people who drink and those who are happy on a dirty bottle of Lambrusco?

Tsarine and Ruinart are the nicest Rose champs I’ve sampled. I used to have a shop in Harrogate and we got quite a few lovies hooked on Tsarine.

I’ve drunk it, it’s good but not outstanding, better than most sub £59 bottles but not as good as the better champagnes. At a similar price, Ruinart is what I look for unless they have a Bollinger Grand Annee, that’s lovely stuff. At the cheaper end of the spectrum Drappier is very, very good for the money and Aldi have the best supermarket fizz, there standard stuff (£12 per bottle) is good, there posh stuff (£15 ish) is astonishing for that price.

Edit, if you’re in the Midlands, pop into Nickolls and Perks in Stourbridge, they have a cracking selection offer some good advice and also sell a huge range of whiskey. And Aldi is round the corner from them as well!

Chilled fizzy wine is the degustatory equivalent of fancy hifi wires.

It reminds me of a paper I read about the effects of differently priced placebos in Parkinson’s disease.

And of course this cracker from Heston Blumenthal.

Got through a couple of bottles while sat looking through a huge window at the Jura mountains in the showroom of a world famous watchmakers after shooting $2million dollars worth of watches. I like my wine and happily pay £10-30 for a bottle but would have preferred a good prosecco with a bit of aperol in it or cloudy bay pelorus (NZ fizz)
Underwhelmed and would never buy it myself or as a gift.