Stuck in the middle - Vintage Champagne, the only cheap fizz?

Since I was in my early teens I have always wanted to own a Lotus. Kids my age were hankering after Ferraris and McLaren F1’s, or at the other end of the spectrum, a Vauxhall Nova with a huge stereo in it and Burberry seat covers, I wanted one of Hethel’s finest. It wasn’t the coolest car on the road, and it certainly wasn’t as exotic or fast as a Ferrari and I didn’t care if it had a stereo in it or not. The reason I wanted a Lotus was that it performed well, come rain or shine, you could drive it to the limit and really enjoy yourself. A Ferrari in the wet was too powerful and a Nova just wouldn’t handle at all well as it was tail heavy due to the weight the Halfords bodykit. Well, that’s what I read anyway. I was a teenager and was too young to drive, but that was what the hundreds of magazines and books I’d read told me and who was I to argue.

And the same is happening today with Champagne. Everyone is wanting Dom Perignon and Krug, or at the other end of the spectrum, Moet and Bollinger non vintage. I, on the other hand, am wanting vintage fizz and am enjoying being on my own.

I was reading today on Decanter’s website that “Top champagne prices are going through the roof”. And they are. Krug Special Cuvee and Bollinger RD are well over £100 retail, Louis Roederer’s Cristal is still silly money and Dom Perignon, I discovered today, have made a Jeroboam of the 1995 vintage in Harrods encased in white gold for seven and a half grand. The only special cuvee Champagnes to still be hovering around the £100 mark is Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill from Pol Roger and Taittinger’s Comte de Champagne, and that is likely to change soon.

Then you have non vintage fizz being consumed by normal folk, also known as anyone earning under a million each year. After years hovering around £20 on offer, we have seen a massive hike in price of all non vintage champagne. Without exception all the biggest houses are pricing their basic champagne north of thirty pounds. And you really don’t want to look at the ‘rrp’ that Majestic are saying the Champagne is worth! I grant you, their multibuy ‘deal’ brings the price in line with the market, but that isn’t much use if you don’t want to buy two bottles. Maybe it is the retailer in me, but I really can’t see the merits to the consumer in forcing you to buy twelve bottles of wine if you are only going to offer the same prices that other retailers do for one bottle. I digress…

Because of the price hikes at the top and bottom of the market this leaves the middle ground, and that is vintage champagne. The champagne houses are desperate to sell it, but nobody is buying it and that is BRILLIANT news!

Take Pol Roger. My favourite champagne house has provided me with some of the best champagnes, both young and old, I have ever tried. If you keep it properly, it will age for decades, getting richer and more complex with age. Bollinger Grand Annee always produces long living wines of exceptional quality and Moet & Chandon is coming good again, with very good quality vintages. By ignoring prestige cuvees, you can buy superb vintage champagne (Bollinger excepted) for under fifty quid, and that is before any discount!

As nobody is buying them, the Champagne houses are desperate to clear stocks. The result is that you can, with a little hunting, get vintage champagnes from top producers for well under £40 – barely above the recommended retail price of their non vintage wines. This is where you should be spending your money. You’ll be unlikely to make a fortune in buying vintage champagne, you can still pick up late 1980’s and early 1990’s vintages for a few pounds more than the most recent year, but what you will get is a wine that ages beautifully, and you will save a lot of money at the moment. They may not be the best champagne in the world, Dom Perignon and Cuvee Sir Winston are always better than Moet and Pol Roger vintage wines, but I’d prefer three bottles of Pol 98 than one Sir Winston from the same vintage.

Trust me. Unless you have many gold rings and go by the name of Snoop Daddy, you can’t afford to drink prestige cuvees, so don’t bother saving up for them and souring the internet to find them. Buy vintage wines, they are affordable, cellarable, plentiful and bloody good champagne. I still don’t have the Lotus though.
Bollinger Grande Annee 1999 £54.15 when you buy six (rrp £64.99) Oddbins
Moet & Chandon 2000 £34.94 Drinks Direct
Perrier Jouet 1998 £29.15 when you buy six (rrp £34.99) Oddbins
Pol Roger 1999 £36.99 (rrp £46.99) Luvians Bottleshop
Taittinger 2002 £36.99 when you buy 2 as part of a case of 12 bottles (rrp £55.50) Majestic
Veuve Clicquot 2002 £36.99 when you buy 2 as part of a case of 12 bottles (rrp £55.50) Majestic