Two sparkling wines came top of the pops in this year’s festive fizz taste test, and one is a great value buy at less than £8.
Our panel of independent wine experts tasted 10 supermarket own-label sparkling white wines, including cava, crémant and prosecco, to find the best sparkling wine for festive celebrations.
Two bottles tied in first place with a score of 76%, but one of the top-scorers was also one of the cheapest bottles on test.
Find out which wine is worth snapping up, and get the full results in our best prosecco and sparkling wine guide.
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Crémant, cava or prosecco?
The key difference between types of sparkling white wine is the region the grapes are from and how they are fermented.
These are the main types we included in our taste test and how they differ to champagne:
- Champagne – can only be made in a specific region of north-east France, usually from a blend of pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier grapes.
- Cava – from Spain, made in the same way as champagne (secondary fermentation in the bottle), but with different grapes and tends to be lower acidity.
- Crémant – also made in the same way as champagne, but from different regions in France and other grape varieties. Grapes must be manually harvested and whole-bunch pressed.
- Prosecco – from Italy, tends to be sweeter and lighter than champagne, secondary fermentation in a steel tank rather than the bottle.
No particular type stood out in our taste test, with two different styles of sparkling wine taking the top spots.
The judges thought one of the Best Buys was a lovely, rounded wine that was crisp and creamy, with a hint of toast. The other top scorer was declared ‘a good party fizz’ by one expert. Our panel enjoyed its baked fruit notes and slight nuttiness.
Find your favourite in our sparkling wines guide, or check out our top champagne picks, including a cheap champagne that beat pricey branded rivals.
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How we found the best sparkling wines
Our panel of four independent wine experts blind-tasted 10 supermarket own-label sparkling wines from major supermarkets including Aldi, Lidl, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.
The judges didn’t know which wine they were tasting, and each expert tried the wines in a different order.
They also tasted and rated champagnes and red wines. See our best food and drink guide for all our Christmas food and drink taste tests.
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source https://www.which.co.uk/news/2021/11/cheap-sparkling-wine-tops-which-taste-test/