Some alternatives to Champagne to get you in the festive mood (From York Press)

Some alternatives to Champagne to get you in the festive mood

10:24am Saturday 26th November 2011 in Tipping's Tipples By Mike Tipping

Personally I can take or leave a glass of fizz. I’m happier drinking still wines, although I fully appreciate many wine drinkers regard bubbles as an absolute must for celebrations. Perhaps this is especially true on Christmas Day?

It’s the same every year in the run up to the festivities. Supermarket shelves are stacked high with ‘bargain’ Champagne. Most of the ones I’ve tried leave me cold I’m afraid. Remember, all that sparkles is not Champagne. With this in mind, here are some alternatives, that are most likely cheaper and better than those supermarket Champagne ‘bargains’.

New to Chilean outfit Concha y Toro’s Casillero del Diablo range is a decent blanc de blanc, that works quite well as an aperitif.

Casillero Del Diablo Brut Sparkling Chardonnay 2010 is made with grapes from the limestone-rich Limari Valley. It is fresh and approachable, with citrus, green apple and some mineral notes too. You will find it in Waitrose from December.

Italy’s Prosecco is very trendy among the wine chattering classes. Try Stocco Prosecco Extra Dry which is available from Yorkshire-based online suppliers Champagne Warehouse. Soft and far too easy to drink, it suggests apples and pears with a hint of citrus.

Or turn the flavour up to number 11 with Brancott Estate Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc Brut, from New Zealand’s famous Marlborough region. It has fresh-cut grass on the nose and is packed with sherbety, punchy flavours of gooseberry, passion fruit, green pepper and elderflower.

Finally, here’s some sparkling wine trivia, to amuse the family around the Christmas dinner table.

• The longest Champagne cork flight, ever recorded, is 177 feet and 9 inches, from ground level, at a vineyard in New York State.

• The pressure inside a sparkling wine bottle is around three times that of a car tyre, or about the same as a tyre on a double-decker bus.

• A vigorously shaken bottle of fizz expells its cork at around 25 mph.

• Scientist Bill Lembeck calculated that a bottle of Champers contains around 49 million bubbles.

• The largest Champagne bottle is called a Melchizedek and holds 30 litres, equivalent to 40 standard sized bottles.

Casillero Del Diablo Brut Sparkling Chardonnay 2010, £8.99 at Waitrose 16/20

Stocco Prosecco Extra Dry, £11.99 from Champagne Warehouse (champagnewarehouse.com) 17/20

Brancott Estate Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc Brut, £12.99 at Morrisons and Majestic 16/20