Of interest to British residents only, I'm afraid – although last week's wine was particularly international. Bahrain even.
Now you may not feel much like buying champagne at the moment but a bargain's a bargain. This special cuvée for Britain's most wine-minded supermarket group was blended by the late, super-talented Daniel Thibault for P&C Heidsieck.
It usually sells for £18.99 a bottle, is about to go up to £19.99 a bottle, but during this month is available at Waitrose for just £15.99 (the equivalent of about $24) which is a pretty good price for a fine champagne from this excellent vintage.
This particular wine stands up well to comparison with many a wine selling at almost twice the price. With a distinctly greenish tinge, it has some of the lemon and nuts of a young Dom Pérignon (of course it is much lighter) and has definite autolysis character on the nose as well as a certain opulence already and some green fruit flavours. A mouthful dances away in the depths of the throat in the way of all good champagnes.
That's it for now, folks. I'm still concentrating most of my efforts on scrubbing the post-Bordeaux purple off my fingertips.
