An inexpensive Champagne that will knock your socks off

NV Doyard, Cuve Vendmiaire, Premier Cru Blanc de Blancs, Champagne, France (£33.99, Wine Rack, WineRack.co.uk).

I travelled up to Wine Rack in Haverstock Hill the other day to run through a range of wines that were being pitched for my various Christmas columns. It was a pretty good tasting and, just before I left, buyer Susan McCraith MW opened a bottle of fizz, on a whim, and it stopped me in my tracks. Regular readers will know that I am horribly cynical about big-brand Champagnes. Every other day I find inexpensive own-label cuves and small-grower wines that obliterate the flavours found in many of the dreary, so-called, Grandes Marques.

Doyard is a small grower and this is such a great wine that you must order some to taste immediately. I have a feeling that if you are remotely serious about Champagne your palate will go into orbit. I had never heard of Doyard before, so here is a bit of boring info for you to arm yourselves with for when you are picking yourself up off the floor after having tasted this wine it's made from a blend of three vintages, and about 40% of the base wines are fermented in oak barrels where they undergo a partial malolactic fermentation, while the balance is fermented in stainless steel tanks. The grapes mostly come from parcels harvested in Grands Crus villages of the Ctes des Blancs. With a low (5g/l) dosage, it is built to last. Cheers.

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Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

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.