A cheap but cheerful Champagne

NV Tesco Finest Premier Cru Champagne, France (£17.98, Tesco).

I very rarely recommend cheap Champagne, but this is a very good bottle of fizz and it is just what the doctor would prescribe for you, I am sure, in testing times like these.

Made from Premier Cru Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes and given 36 months of bottle age before release (much longer than normal), this is a very grown-up flavour for such a competitive price tag. I charge through many bottles of Champs during the year and, is it me, or is the average quality of this glorious region dipping drastically of late? I am certain that the 'famous names' are under all manner of pressure and that these stresses and strains are showing in the glass.

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This wine, however, is made by a massive co-operative and, when the chips are down, many hands often make light work. My advice is to buy a few cases of this wine for emergency (and party) consumption, safe in the knowledge that every time you open a bottle you effectively 'save' a tenner. Then spend this wise cash on a serious, special occasion Champs I will cover this base in a few week's time. I am not an accountant, but this kind of financial management makes sense to me!

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year

Matthew Jukes has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006.

He has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.