Nipping out for a last-minute bottle of fizz to celebrate the end 
of 2017 and welcome in the New Year? If it’s something vintage you are after that’s drinking superbly well now, then Waitrose Brut 2005, the wine I finished my recent WSET tasting with, is very hard to beat. Made from a blend of 50% Chardonnay, 41% Pinot Noir, 9% Pinot Meunier by the CRVC (the Reims co-op that also produces the excellent Castelnau champagne range) it’s sumptuously rich and ripe, showing distinctive toasty notes suggesting it’s close to its peak of maturity at 12 years. And it is an out and out bargain at just £19.99 currently.
I’d also be very happy to be drinking the Nicolas Feuillatte Blanc de Blancs 2008 vintage tonight. A cuvée that’s a grand tour of some of the best Chardonnay sites all over the Champagne region, including around a third from the villages to the south-west of the Côte des Blancs known as the Vallée du petit Morin and for me, a significant splash of Montgueux Chardonnay. This unique, isolated cru on a hill due west of the city of Troyes, I suspect accounts for the much of this wine’s textural creaminess. Fruit from here also features prominently in Feuillatte’s prestige Cuvée Palmes d’Or, which is a class act.
I also re-tasted yesterday Chanoine’s lovely 2009 vintage, 
which is a 50/50 Chardonnay/Pinot Noir blend from this top-quality harvest, that regrettably many leading producers failed to vintage – mainly because it followed the financial crash and some producers were worried about having large stocks of unsold vintage champagne in their cellars. As a result, Chanoine Frères, itself one of the oldest houses founded back in 1730, was able to buy some high-quality juice from some notable houses who had decided not to commercialise this vintage.
With attractive spicy notes evident that suggest some oak fermentation is present, this is a real delight to drink now, showing both richness and elegance and it will set you back only £24 at Tesco even when it is not on price promotion. Vintage champagne from one of the better-known names will typically cost at least double that, but not, I suspect, give twice the pleasure.