The best fizz for Christmas, from £10 to £370

French Crémants, made just like champagne, can offer some of the best-value sparkling wines. And if you need at least two bottles of champagne, do consider buying magnums, the ideal bottle size for champagne. A magnum of well-aged vintage champagne can offer as much pleasure as many prestige cuvées for a fraction of the price. All wines are 12% or 12.5% unless stated otherwise.

KEY

🔴 For the adventurous drinker

🟠 For the classicist

🟢 Environmentally friendly/ ‘worth supporting’ 

🔵 To cellar for a future Christmas

🟣 Has a story to tell 

🟤 Especially suitable as aperitif

Louis Couturier Rosé NV Crémant de Bordeaux (11.5%)
Blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot aged 12 months on the lees of a second fermentation in bottle. More drive than sweetness.
£10 Tesco

De Chanceny NV Crémant de Loire
Another traditional method bargain from Tesco, this one is a blend of Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc, not trying to be a copy of champagne but very refreshing. Respectable-looking label.
£12 Tesco

Ch des Cossé, Réserve du Marquis Brut 2019 Crémant de Loire
A Chenin and Chardonnay fizz with a bit of maturity and interest.
£13.50 Amathus

🔴 🟢 Joan Sarda, Reserva Brut 2021 Cava (11.5%)
Delicate, organic and dry.
£14.25 Corney & Barrow

Bernard Massard, Cuvée de l’Ecusson Pinot Noir Brut Rosé NV Crémant de Luxembourg
Light, fresh, pretty and well distributed.
£17.95 Champagne One Ltd, £20 That Wine Cellar, £21.50 Amathus

Alain Voge, Les Bulles d’Alain Brut 2016 St-Péray (13%)
Rhône Valley Marsanne from a fine source, aged four years on lees to produce a rich, flavourful fizz, more interesting than champagnes at this price.
£24.81 Lay Wheeler

Albert Lebrun, Premier Cru Brut NV Champagne
Great price for a Pinot Noir/Chardonnay blend from a Premier Cru village. Aged three years.
£26 The Wine Society

🔴 Benjamin Bridge Brut NV Nova Scotia
The east coast of Canada is proving a fine source of sparkling wine, well made in the image of champagne. This went down well at the FT Weekend Festival.
£26.02 Flint

Lanson, Le Black Création 258 NV Champagne
Hugely improved champagne, with its origins (2018 for the 258) now clearly identified on the back label.
£27.30 Four Walls (called Le Black Label Brut and based on the 2015 blend) and many others up to £72

Dom de la Taille aux Loups, Triple Zéro NV Montlouis
An old favourite sparkling, top-quality, low-intervention Loire Chenin whose quality seems to have survived the sad demise of its creator Jacky Blot.
£27.40 Justerini & Brooks

Thomas Hatté Brut NV Champagne
Popular, long-standing house champagne of the Hampshire wine merchant. Biscuity nose. For current drinking rather than cellaring.
£28.95 Stone, Vine & Sun

Guido Berlucchi, 61 Satèn Brut NV Franciacorta
Refreshing liquid lemon sherbet. Italians love bubbles.
£32.65 Shelved Wine

Langham, Corallian Classic Cuvée NV England
Tommy Grimshaw and team are on a roll on their Dorset farm. Their recently launched, youthful Blanc de Blancs is more expensive but is also excellent.
£32.95 Langham Wine Estate

🟢 Terrevive Bergiante, San Vicent Rosato Frizzante NV IGT dell’Emilia (11.8%)
Fascinating, biodynamic, beekeeping producer of highbrow Lambrusco.
£34 Swig

De Saint Gall, So Dark 2016 Champagne
The Union Champagne co-op’s pride and joy, made substantially from Pinot Noir grapes grown in Bouzy and the village that supplies Krug’s Clos d’Ambonnay (£2,000 a bottle). Five years’ ageing on lees.
£46 Tesco

Duménil, Les Pêcherines Vieilles Vignes Premier Cru NV Champagne
80% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Noir, from a 55-year-old vineyard in Chigny-les-Roses that used to grow peaches. Very arresting.
£48 Davy’s

J Dumangin Extra Brut Premier Cru 2009 Champagne
Fully mature. The bottle age and ripeness of the vintage compensate for any potential austerity in an Extra Brut wine.
£48 Yapp Bros

🟢 Domaine Hugo, Hugo Single Vineyard Brut Nature 2020 England (11.5%)
Wiltshire farmer’s minimal-intervention blend from vines thriving biodynamically on limestone and vinified partly in amphora. Very à la mode.
£51.50 Stone, Vine & Sun

Taittinger 2015 Champagne
Not bad value for an exciting nine-year-old 50:50 blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
£57.25 The Champagne Company, £60 Tesco

🔵 🟤 Piper-Heidsieck, Essentiel Cuvée Extra Brut Reservée BV13 NV Champagne
2013 was a great but backward champagne vintage and this tense, bone-dry blend of 2013s with 18% even older wines will only get better.
£116 a magnum The Finest Bubble

🟣 Danbury Ridge, Solstice 1st Edition NV England
Producers of England’s best still wine have launched this rich, apricot-scented but dry Essex fizz.
£62 The Finest Bubble

Laurent-Perrier, Héritage Brut NV Champagne
Sort of baby brother of their heavenly Grand Siècle multi-vintage prestige cuvée. Excellent value for a zesty blend of vintages from 2014 to 2019.
£64.99 Averys, £72 Hedonism or £154 a magnum The Finest Bubble

🟢 Telmont, Réserve de la Terre Extra Brut NV Champagne
Vibrant, non-austere wine from perhaps the most eco-aware champagne house, in a super-light bottle.
£68 Millésima UK

Bollinger PNVZ19 Brut NV Champagne
Bollinger’s relatively new, thoroughly admirable series of Pinot Noir wines from specific vintages and villages: 2019 and Verzenay in this case. The VZ16 in magnum at £194 is great too, and still youthful.
£82 The Finest Bubble

🔵 Bruno Paillard, Assemblage Extra Brut 2015 Champagne
Tense blend of Premiers and Grands Crus aged for seven years on lees. Sophisticated.
£84.50 Wanderlust Wines, £85 Hedonism

🟠 Pol Roger 2002 Champagne
2002 was a superlative champagne vintage. (Veuve Clicquot 2002 in magnum is also looking extremely good.) Fully mature with real undertow but certainly not old.
£92 Lay & Wheeler

Billecart-Salmon, Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon Rosé 2012 Champagne
Extremely complex and an example of how the Champenois have been moving away from deathly pale rosés.
£166 The Finest Bubble

Taittinger, Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2007 Champagne
Glorious, gorgeous Chardonnay prestige cuvée that always does so well in blind tastings.
£180 The Finest Bubble

Dom Pérignon, P2 Plénitude Deuxième 2006 Champagne
Famous prestige cuvée given extra lees contact in the cellar. Wonderful tension on a luxurious, creamy base.
£370 Hedonism

Tasting notes, scores and suggested drink dates on Purple Pages of JancisRobinson.com. International stockists on Wine-searcher.com