An inexpensive Champagne that will knock your socks off

published 16 December 2016

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 worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. 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, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

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.