Video Transcript: Champagne Showdown

Written By: ClassicWines.com Team on Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Brian Freedman: Welcome to the Classicwines.com Champagne Showdown; I am your host Brian Freedman. Today we will be discussing inexpensive bottle of bubbly.

Now when we say inexpensive we are talking under $30 which when it comes to champagne is really quite a bargain. So today we will be discussing two bottles: First the Champagne Jacquart, $29.95 or less; and the Champagne Nicolas Feuillate, the famous Blue Label.

Now while we are pouring these let's talk a little bit about champagne. Now just because these are white wines, does not mean that they are actually just made from white grapes. Most champagnes are going to be a blend of three grapes, both Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, which is we all know a white grape, and its cousin it's equally red or black skin grape Pinot Meunier.

So the way they get the color in red wine is they just let the juice and the skin sit together. So just because this is white what we can surmise or what we know is that they crush the grapes, they allow the juice to run free from the skins. Voil&aecute;! we have white wine.

So the Champagne Jacquart right here -- I mean this is very fresh, it's very citric, I am getting a lot of lemon in there. It's not terribly complex on the nose but certainly smells balanced enough. It seems like a great, great buy, I mean at least on the nose. Let's see what it brings on the palate, bright, almost zinging acidity, very, very refreshing. I keep on coming back to that word with the champagne. This to me would be a perfect aperitif bottle.

Now let's see what the wine number two, the Nicolas Feuillate Champagne is bringing. It's interesting, it's noticeably more pale on the color, and on the nose it's almost a little gassy or if that makes sense. It almost seems like the bubbles are a bit more aggressive, not in the bad way. Now this is interesting. I am getting more earth tones on the palate here. It's a little bit darker on the palate, little bit more in the mushroom family. Certainly still gets good acidity especially on the finish like a lemon cream sort of thing going on.

But I got to tell you, for the first time in Classic Wines Wine Showdown history we have a draw. For under $30 you can't go wrong with either one of these, the Champagne Jacquart or the Champagne Nicolas Feuillate.

From all of us here at Classicwines.com I am your host Brian Freedman, and remember with these champagnes and all of your bubbly or fermented needs you can find these on our website. Cheers.